


IX: The Final Order

by MatrixOfWumbo



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Betrayal, Canon Compliant - Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Caves, Chases, Death Star, Desert, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Ghost Luke Skywalker, Force Ghost(s), Force Lightning, Force Sensitivity, Force Visions, Gen, Lightsaber Battles, Lightsabers, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Not Canon Compliant - Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Ocean, Outer Space, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rey is Not a Palpatine, Space Battles, Space Flight, Space Pirates, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, Treasure Hunting, Twi'leks (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 46,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24865888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MatrixOfWumbo/pseuds/MatrixOfWumbo
Summary: [An alternate Episode IX]For four long years, the Resistance has battled the First Order for control of the Galaxy. But now the return of an old foe tests Rey and Ben Solo like never before. Will the Resistance's fire burn the First Order down? Will Kylo Ren reign supreme? Or will a long-dead evil swallow them all whole?
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 13
Kudos: 24





	1. Kijimi

Once again, war has come to the galaxy. 

Word of Luke Skywalker’s miracle on Crait has

ignited an inferno of dissent to the despotic

FIRST ORDER, led by Kylo Ren.

The Supreme Leader seeks nothing less than

the destruction of the RESISTANCE, and of 

Skywalker’s final pupil, the young Jedi Rey.

But Ren must maintain his fragile alliance

with the rest of the First Order’s leadership,

lest his dark ambitions fall apart at the last 

moment. All the while, his loyal Knights scour 

the Galaxy for sources of power in the Force. . . .

The full moon was bright over the snowfields on the night the First Order invaded Kijimi. The silver disc was obscured by a long, pointed shadow. Like a passing cloud, a massive dreadnought cleaved through the moon and plunged the drifts into darkness.

As the giant starship approached a nearby city, smaller craft began to pour from its sides and underbelly. In the streets, citizens wrapped in warm cloaks ran for shelter as rows of Stormtroopers in gleaming white armor marched into the settlement.

 _"This city is now under the authority of the First Order,"_ a voice boomed from the dreadnought above. " _Mandatory curfew is being enforced. Return to your residences immediately!"_

As the occupation began to crack down across the city, there was a stirring in the alleys. Small bands of Kijimans ran out with blaster rifles and fired on the troopers, only to flee back to cover as they were answered by much larger bolts of light. An AT-ST Walker slowly, unflinchingly waddled down the street towards them. Its canons screamed in a terrible rhythm as it approached, blowing divots out of the walls near the cowering freedom fighters. 

Suddenly, there was a loud crash, and the sound of the canons stopped. When the rebels peered around the corner, the walker was a smoking wreck propped against the side of a building. One of its legs had been cut clean off. The soldiers could just make out the shape of a cloaked figure disappearing into the blowing snow beyond.

Further away, a group of civilians was huddling into a safe house. Some of them had already been displaced from their original homes by the First Order, and had come to Kijimi to take advantage of its distance from anything of particular repute.

A small Twi'lek girl yelped as the red glow of a laser cutter appeared on the wall she had been sitting against. The frightened crowd watched as someone on the other side cut a doorway into the wall. Could the storm troopers have found them? Two men in scarves and thick hats pulled the chunk out to allow a short girl with dark hair and a man in a brown overcoat into the room. The woman raised her hands to show she was unarmed.

"Everyone alright? We're with the Resistance!"

Everyone gave a sigh of relief.

Rose Tico had always admired her sister Paige. They joined the Resistance after the First Order took over their planet, what felt like a lifetime ago. They were part of Cobalt Squadron, Rose a mechanic on Paige's bomber. Now Rose was one of the only members of Cobalt left. Looking at the faces of the Kijimans in front of her, she wondered how many people like her were being made today. 

Her companion was Finn, a storm trooper that defected from the First Order around the same time her sister died. His insider knowledge of the Order wasn't often as helpful as either of them would have liked, but when the chips were down he was someone she could count on.

Finn stepped forward now to address the crowd.

"We got a distress signal from someone. Who's in charge, here?"

"I am," an older voice came from the back. It was a smartly dressed man with a dark blue cape and a greying mustache. "And that would be my signal you're tracking."

"No way," Rose breathed.

"You know this guy?" Finn asked.

"He's a legend. Everyone in the Resistance knows about him. You're Lando Calrissian, right?'

"Ha! A legend? I like the sound of that. You bet I am. Lando Calrissian, lady. At your service."

* * *

As the skirmish mounted outside, a black and orange X-Wing fighter weaved its way through the bursts of laser fire.

Poe Dameron was used to risky maneuvers, but even the self-proclaimed greatest pilot in the galaxy barely made it through planetfall with his thrusters intact. The air was thick with Probe Droids and TIEs of several models. 

"Finn! Tell me you guys made it down there."

_"We're in one piece, and rendezvoused with the refugees. There's someone hear you oughta talk to."_

On the ground, Finn and Rose were leading Lando's refugees back to the shipyard through the sewer tunnels.

"Good to hear you're still kicking, flyboy," Lando smirked. "Or do you prefer _General Dameron_ these days?"

 _"Lando? Lando Calrissian? I thought you were KIA six years ago. Man, when you drop off the grid you drop_ way _off."_

"Well, I figured I always did my best work out of the spotlight. I still know a few old guys from the old days who could help get the Resistance's message out."

"If you were any further out of the spotlight, you could have waved goodbye when me and Rey escaped from Jakku," Finn rolled his eyes.

"Speaking of which," Lando's eyes lit up. "Where is our budding Jedi?"

"Good question," Rose nodded. "Poe, do you have eyes on Rey?"

_"Do I - can you not see the huge space battle going on in the sky?"_

"Technically, I'm in a tunnel, I can't see anything going on in the sky."

Behind the cockpit Poe's astromech droid BB-8 whirred and beeped.

"Well, _technically_ , I do have eyes, because BB-8 is tracking her life signature. She's downtown, going after the main target."

* * *

In the narrow, sloping - and now empty - streets of the city, a man clad all in black strolled purposely forth. Flanked by two Flametroopers, he carried a huge broad cleaver over his shoulder. He stopped at a door, the lamp overhead shining over his masked face. The man raised his hand, and with a crunch the door folded inward.

"Wait here," he ordered the troopers as he stepped over the crumpled door.

It was a disaster inside. Rows of racks stood throughout the store laden with buckets of scrap metal and computer parts. This would take too long. He needed to find the owner...

Outside, the cloaked figure approached the junk shop.

One of the troopers raised his flamethrower.

"Halt! You're out past curfew."

"I'm allowed to be here," she said, waving her arm before her face. 

"She's allowed to be here," the trooper's partner lowered the weapon with his hand.

"What are you doing?" The first trooper asked with alarm.

"Return to your division and await further instructions, allow me to enter."

After a pause, the first trooper's posture relaxed.

"We're going back to our division," he said to the woman matter-of-factly. "You may enter."

Inside, the sound of a stack falling over alerted the man to the presence of an alien, about a foot high and with long gangly fingers. The alien said something in an angry tone, the voice high and the language unfamiliar.

"Babu Frik," the man said with a hint of fascination. "Word around this part of the Galaxy is you deal in interesting tech. The sort of tech the First Order might be interested in."

The small creature cocked his head and chattered in a confused tone. 

The man pointed his blade at the alien. If he didn't understand Basic, he'd understand _fear._

"Trudgen Ren." 

The voice came from the doorway. It was a woman, hair pulled back in tight brown knots, a staff at her back. She was dressed in khaki and grey, with a black cloak shielding her from the cold. In her hand was a sword with a blue blade of pure energy. 

"That's you, right? I've crossed paths with five of your Knights of Ren. But not you, until now."

"The Scavenger," Trudgen said flatly. "I do love to complete a collection. Come to admire the scrap as well?"

"Is all this really worth the trouble?" Rey angled her head towards the ceiling, through which the wail of TIE Fighters over head and the booming steps of First Order Walkers thrummed and echoed. 

"All this destruction, and blood - you've invaded a whole planet - for a piece of old junk?"

"I thought you might have understood," Trudgen Ren turned slightly, his back still to her. "Growing up on Jakku."

He rooted through a pile with his cleaver, then moved on.

"For the scavenger, it is a necessity. For the collector, it is a _need_ , a compulsion. I wonder, which are you now? An impressive reconstruction, that saber in your hand. A Clone Wars-era model, not particularly rare or exciting. But of course we both know that's no simple mass-produced Jedi weapon."

"Don't change the subject."

"But it is _our_ subject. Our realm of expertise. To the uninitiated it seems mad to scrounge about for baubles and trinkets. But we know the truth - ah-ha."

He pushed aside a sheet of metal and turned to face Rey. Floating between the two was a prism of metal and translucent crystal. It pulsed softly with violet light. Rey's eyes widened when she saw it - when she felt what was _inside_ it.

"Now you see. Some junk is worth its weight in blood."

She rushed at Trudgen Ren, her blade spitting sparks where it grazed the metal racks of Babu Frik's shop. The Knight of Ren flicked a trigger on his cleaver, causing the massive blade to begin vibrating. Rey chopped down with the saber, and her opponent blocked it with his larger weapon. The lightsaber blade faltered and shuddered, turning ragged and roaring with a distorted hum.

"Laudable craftsmanship, at a glance," Trudgen continued his speech. "Truly the Skywalkers chose a worthy heir. But a closer look shows the flaws, the flaws in your crystal, and in its mighty legacy. Of course, you had help with that part, no? That boy could never take good care of his sabers."

Rey grunted and leapt back, pushing over a shelf with a wave of her arm. Trudgen swung upwards and through the entire structure.

Rey was faster with her smaller, lighter weapon. But Trudgen Ren accommodated his slow attacks with raw power. At last, he broke the beam of the lightsaber, causing it to fizzle. Rey narrowly evaded being chopped in half by propelling herself backwards with a Force Push. 

Determined to finish the fight, the young woman sheathed her blue saber and produced a new one in a smooth motion from inside her cloak. The hilt was a gunmetal grey, embossed with swirling patterns of a brighter silver. When she pushed the trigger, the blade flashed out strong and stable - and bright red.

"Oh, I was so hoping I would get to see it," Trudgen cooed as if seeing pictures of a newborn. "Now this is a true collector's piece. A relic from a simpler time. If only it could talk. What sort of terrible secrets could it tell?"

Rey lunged with the new saber, catching the tip of Trudgen's vibrocleaver with more force than the previous weapon and forcing it downward. Trudgen now found their duel a lot more evenly matched than it was before.

The Texts taught Rey that Kyber Crystals had their own independent connection to the Force, a pseudo sentience. Using the two sabers this past year or so, she had started to get a feel for how they differed. Luke's saber was younger, but there was a weight there, the burden of countless battles and shared experiences with its previous masters. This red crystal was discovered by Luke on one of his adventures and doubtlessly ancient. But it acted with wildness and aggression Rey was often unprepared for. 

She was unclear of how that was possible. The saber could not move under its own power. But when she turned it on it was as though a circuit was completed, and she sometimes wasn't sure who was in control. She hated the history that the red saber represented. But then, the two blades were hardly different in that regard. The blue had borne witness to the birth of Darth Vader himself. And with its crystal still fractured by her struggle with Kylo Ren four years ago, she needed to improve her arsenal.

The blade swung wildly out of its arc, Rey straining against its momentum to try to control its movements. 

Trudgen needed to wrap it up. He recovered the artifact and looked for an opening. At the same time, the blade finally flung from Rey's hands, spinning towards Trudgen.

The knight narrowly avoided losing several fingers as the blade sailed straight at the prism, connecting with a crunch and a loud metallic screech. It fell to the ground in a fractured heap.

Rey looked at the shattered artifact with horror. Trudgen seemed unmoved.

"Damn. Looks like we're both leaving empty handed today. Goodbye, Scavenger."

He lifted his arm and spoke into his wrist. 

"Burn it."

Rey was instantly aware of the roar of a dozen flamethrowers outside, a cadre of Flametroopers training their weapons on Babu Frik's shop.

"Think fast." 

The knight threw his knife at the young Jedi. By the time she dodged out of the way, Trudgen was gone, and flames were starting to lick at the ceiling.

* * *

"Rey!"

Finn and Rose ran up to the burning building as the woman exited.

"Rose, Finn!" 

They exchanged hugs and looked around. The street was littered with dead Flametroopers.

"The Ren?"

"Gone. Did you all do this?"

 _"That was me,"_ Poe's voice came over Finn's radio, _"I'm here too, if anyone forgot."_

"Nice going, Poe," Rey called back. 

She saw Lando coming down the stairs. 

"Where's Babu? We have to get Babu out of there before the whole place comes down."

The inside was already thick with smoke. Rey closed her eyes and concentrated. 

"There," she pointed to a stack of strange gadgets. 

Lando pushed some scrap aside and pulled out Babu.

"Good to see you, little buddy," he said. Babu reacted with delight upon seeing Lando.

Dropping down to the floor, Babu tugged on Lando's pant leg and frantically pointed at a large case on the wall.

“We need to get out of here, Babu,” Lando urged him. “I’m sorry, but you'll have to leave the shop behind.”

The alien did not stop his routine. Lando sighed.

“Alright. One box won’t hurt.”

He reached for the box and was surprised by its weight.

“Gosh. What do you have in here, Babu? Rocks?”

Rey found the remains of the prism on the floor and scooped them into her satchel. She also recovered Trudgen's knife.

"We should leave before we draw any more attention to ourselves," Rey said to her friends.

"Agreed," said Finn. "Lando has some clean ships, we're taking a group of refugees back to base."

* * *

Chewbacca, the Resistance's resident Wookiee, was waiting for them at the ship.

The _Millennium Falcon_ , a beat up old Corellian Freighter, used to belong to hero of the Civil War (and notable smuggler) Han Solo. Han and Chewbacca had met Rey after she used the stolen ship to escape from Jakku, and soon reclaimed it as the rightful owners. Or so Chewie would like her to believe, anyway. Han died not long after; cut down by the First Order's leader Kylo Ren. At that time though, he was just his son, Ben Solo. 

Since his death, Rey and Chewie had been taking care of the _Falcon_ in Han's stead. Rey had some ideas for a long-overdue facelift for the ship's fast-approaching centennial birthday, but with the new war with the First Order raging on, it seemed unlikely she'd have time.

 _"I'm going ahead to clear you a path out of here,"_ Poe's voice crackled over the comlink. 

"It will be good to go home again," Lando sighed as the ships took off. "Where is home, these days?"

"Forest planet, called Ajan Kloss," Rose replied. "General Organa said the Rebellion picked it out years ago. You might have heard of it."

Chewie engaged the hyperdrive and the small fleet of rebels surged off into space.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, and welcome to a... different sort of project than I'm used to. If you have stumbled upon this fic before, I had to unfortunately take it down due to technical difficulties. After I get up to speed with Chapter 2 tomorrow, expect a chapter every Monday.
> 
> Though I tagged it as such, I don't consider this a "Fix-It Fic," as I ultimately don't feel strongly enough about Episode IX to really justify the term. I apparently did feel strongly enough to write this though, so maybe I'm wrong. At any rate, I don't like putting more effort to being mad at a thing than the amount of effort that went into making it, which in this case seems like not that much.
> 
> This story essentially treats everything up to the trailers of Episode IX as canon, using a majority of the characters, names, and settings established in either the movie itself or the visual compendium. The order in which these things occur; however, is all very jumbled to better suit the story I wanted to tell, as should be clear from this first chapter. I hope anyone that finds this appreciates it.


	2. Ajan Kloss

A team of Resistance flight crewmen rushed out of the trees to greet the _Falcon_ as it landed.

Poe exited the ship to see Lieutenant Kaydel Ko Connix waiting for him.

"Welcome back," Connix said. "The General is on the line in the Debriefing Room."

"I'll be around as soon as I get changed," Poe replied.

"Anything I should know about ahead of time?"

"Shouldn't be out of the ordinary."

She saw Chewbacca helping Babu out of the _Falcon._

"Who's the little guy?"

Poe followed her gaze.

"Babu Frik. Droidsmith. Got on the Order's radar."

"And now he's here?"

"He's small, he won't be too much trouble."

"He's already Hell on my back," Lando grumbled as he hefted Babu's trunk down the ramp.

"General Calrissian?" Connix's eyes went wide. "You're still alive!"

"Why does everyone think I died?" The old general shook his head angrily.

Across the airstrip, Rose and Finn were helping the refugees out of the shuttle.

"We don't have room to keep you long, but once you've rested we can get you set up with papers to go wherever you'd like."

"Except back to Kijimi," Rose muttered.

"Hey," Finn whispered back. "I count 53 people who aren't living under First Order rule right now. That's something"

"It's a start, Finn. We're nowhere near done."

"I'm not going anywhere."

"You gotta wonder if we'll ever be able to," Rose stared at the rows of Fighters on the airstrip.

"Four years, and nobody's budged. We've taken out two of their dreadnoughts and 3 of their Destroyers, they've flushed us out of 6 bases and killed… way too many of our spies."

She looked at Finn and shook her head, disgusted at herself.

"I'm sorry. I'm such a killjoy."

"No. Don't apologize. I'm sure you're not the only one on the base who thinks that way. But a lot of people sacrificed themselves to bring us this hope."

"We can't afford to waste it," she smiled.

"Speaking of hope, where's Rey?"

"The forest," Finn jerked his thumb behind him.

"New Jedi artifact for the collection."

* * *

Rey stepped through an overgrown gap in the stonework and into a collapsed antechamber. A faint smell of smoke still tinged the air here. Many years ago this had been a place of study and meditation. Now it was full of nothing but ghosts.

"Master Skywalker," she whispered.

"Hey kid," a voice came from in front of her. Soon a shape materialized along with it. An older man, with black robes and a trim, greying beard. His eyes twinkled, even through the veil of thin blue light that surrounded his shape.

For only a few days, Luke Skywalker had been Rey's teacher, a harsh critic of the ways of the Jedi - ways he himself once championed. This was his temple that they stood in, a place with a strong connection to the Force for the old Master. It allowed his spirit to manifest long enough to continue Rey's training.

"What have you brought today?"

"I think it's a Holocron. Well, it used to be."

"Oh my," Luke pored over the crumpled mass of circuits before the girl.

"Trudgen Ren was after it on Kijimi. I… destroyed it in the fight."

"Probably for the best. Holocrons are more trouble than they're worth. The ancients believed that leaving their wisdom behind would be a boon for future generations, but oftentimes holocrons left out the context of that which they were trying to teach. And if the Ren were after it, chances are it wasn't a good lesson in the first place."

"If only this stupid saber would cooperate," Rey took out the dark grey hilt and glared at it. "The only reason I couldn't bring it back in one piece is the damned thing wouldn't listen."

"Healing a Kyber Crystal is a skill exceedingly few possess," Luke shook his head. "The Sith who corrupted the crystal had to pour a lot of pain and anguish and fear into it. It will not put its trust in you so easily."

"I need to get a proper saber of my own. I've done what I can to your old saber, but two halves on their own don't function the same as a whole."

"Remember that a Jedi -"

"Is more than just their lightsaber, yes," Rey flounced onto a rotting bench. "So you've told me."

"You're used to self-sufficiency, Rey," Luke said, taking a seat next to her.

"Everything you've ever needed you've been able to build, or fix."

"It was the only way to survive on Jakku. You might as well try when you have nothing left to lose."

Luke nodded.

"It's gotten you far in your Force training. But it can also be deceptive - resourcefulness alone won't make you a master."

"It seems like it gets me into trouble as often as it gets me out of it," Rey smiled wryly. Finn still had a scar from a rathtar sucker to show for it.

Luke chuckled. "Now you sound like Han!"

* * *

Poe was finishing up as Finn entered the chamber. He, Connix, the Mon Calamari communications officer Lieutenant Bek, and Maz Kanata were gathered around the holotable debriefing General Organa on the Kijimi Operation. Maz, always an ally of Leia and her friends, joined up with the Resistance formally not long after the Battle of Crait nearly decimated their numbers.

"Thank you, Poe," Leia's hologram said just before winking out.

"What does the general say?" Finn asked as the other personnel began filtering out.

"No news is good news," Poe shrugged.

"Bases are secured, spies in the Outer Rim are maintaining their cover, and there's no sign of any major activity from the First Order. For now, we just keep our current objective - keep running interference on the Knights of Ren, keep looking for an opportunity to take down Kylo Ren."

He sighed as he said it.

"It's hard for her."

"It must be," Finn said. "Can't say I share the feeling."

"I've been on the business end of the guy too," Poe nodded. "We all want a piece of him. Leia's not naive - but she isn't a quitter either."

"Ben Solo has made himself an integral part of the First Order," an old voice came from the doorway. Maz Kanata entered, wiping off one of her goggle lenses with the hem of her shirt.

"It becomes a question," she nodded sagely, "of how you save someone who doesn't want to be saved."

* * *

"Thank you for joining me. I'm sure you're all very busy completing your assigned tasks."

In a meeting room aboard the Star Destroyer _Steadfast_ , Armitage Hux stood with arms crossed at the head of a long table. A handful of officers were seated at the table, while several other places were occupied by holograms of First Order operatives abroad.

"Let's begin with an update on our fleet expansion," Hux turned to the hologram of a slight man with a thin mustache. "President Entralla, you have the floor."

"Construction on the _Stygian II_ continues apace," the man said carefully. "By the year's end the next two vessels will be fully operational, and we will be more than halfway to replenishing your losses from the Crait operation."

He gulped when he realized what he said.

" _The_ losses… from the Crait operation."

Hux grinned, on the inside. The Drive Yards were a critical resource, and he appreciated the level of fear he could leverage over them when needed.

"This pace of three Destroyers a year has been sufficient thus far," Hux conceded. "But our benefactors grow impatient. Is there no way to increase production?"

"With more divisions committed to the Yards, we could redouble our efforts," Entralla said.

"We will not be able to garrison troopers in the numbers the field officers desire if we continue deploying them to Production," a female officer rebutted.

An older man, clearly not as intimidated by Hux as Entralla, spoke up.

"We're already spreading ourselves thin as it is! Between Starkiller and the _Supremacy_ we've lost an incalculable amount of manpower. How will we even condition a new generation of troopers in time to staff the new ships we're building?"

"Gird yourself, Lieutenant," Hux eyed him. "Defeatism is not welcome in these ranks. Nor is it necessary. Recall that our foes are confined to small pockets across the Galaxy, tunneling like rats to avoid the light. If we cannot flush out a group as feeble as the Resistance, we are not worthy to carry on the legacy of our forebears."

He scoffed and turned towards a window at the side of the room.

"It was not so long ago that the Empire had fleets of Star Destroyers that stretched for leagues in every direction. To be reduced to this..."

He turned around, as if he had only now remembered there were other people present.

"No matter. If no one has further questions for the Drive Yards, I will move on to Inner Rim operations."

"Very well," another officer said. "Though would war maneuvers not be something the Supreme Leader would wish to hear personally?"

"The Supreme Leader is attending to other duties," His glowered at the officer, "And I am presiding over this meeting in his absence. We will get on fine without him for one afternoon."

* * *

Inside the Destroyer _Prejudice_ , a similar meeting was taking place. In terrible formation around it were the other four battleships in the Knights' command, and docked inside was the fifth. The Knights traveled aboard the _Night Buzzard_ since before they served the First Order, and it still served as their base of operations on the rare occasion that they deployed as a unit.

Now coasting silently through the magnetic shield and into the hangar was a final ship. It had long, black, predatory wings that folded vertically as it finished its landing procedure.

Trudgen, the _Prejudice_ 's commanding Knight, stood at the front of the six black-clad figures and ordered several rows of Stormtroopers to assume formation with a wave of his hand.

With a hiss the door at the front of the shuttle opened, and the Knights of Ren knelt before their Master.

Kylo Ren looked around the hangar bay, inspecting the surroundings.

"Master Ren," Trudgen bowed. "I am dishonored by my failure on Kijimi. The artifact was destroyed."

"Better destroyed than in the hands of the Resistance," Kylo Ren looked down at the knight. "Up, Trudgen Ren."

The Knights moved into a secure location to begin their debriefs.

"Status reports."

Ap'Lek Ren, the team's tactician, rose to speak.

"Kijimi is firmly in the grasp of the First Order. Capitulation will be difficult to measure without a central government, but the planet will be staffed to deal with any Resistance outbreaks within 72 hours."

"We have reports from the ground of several unregistered craft entering Hyperspace with the Resistance fleet," Trudgen continued.

"It appears their play for the Holocron was a cover while they met up with another Rebel faction on Kijimi."

"Another one…" Ren pondered. "There have been more Resistance cells than ever popping up in our systems lately."

"The Galaxy just isn't _afraid_ like it was four years ago," Vicrul Ren lamented.

"You must be slipping then," Cardo Ren, the Knights' armorer chuckled.

"That's enough," Kylo Ren commanded. They fell silent. After a moment he spoke.

"Supreme Leader Snoke was correct. Skywalker returned hope to the Galaxy. Hope that they could reject our guidance the way they rejected the Empire so long ago."

"And now that hope lives on in the girl," Ap'Lek nodded.

"I had the pleasure of making her acquaintance on Kijimi last night," Trudgen said brightly. "You were quite right about that red saber of hers, Vicrul. A beautiful piece."

"All of you have encountered the girl and her Resistance allies now," Kylo Ren held up an accusing finger.

"And all of you have failed. I was content to leave the Scavenger to her business while I attended to the First Order. Perhaps I have been too lenient."

"I mean, she killed Snoke," said Ushar Ren.

"That's not nothing. He was stronger in the Force than all of us."

"Indeed…" Ren muttered.

Across the table, Kuruk Ren stared at his master intently, silent as he had ever been.

"She is not to be underestimated."

"What are you thinking, boss?" Trudgen asked.

"I think I will need to take matters into my own hands."

"Why not deploy two or three of us?" Vicrul suggested. "We are the Knights of Ren, after all. We didn't get our reputation working alone."

"Our work as a unit is unmatched, to be sure," Kylo Ren said in agreement, "but your posts are important work, and I can't pull you from them to handle one Resistance cell. As troublesome as this particular one is…"

"You need eyes and ears you can trust throughout the fleet," Ap'Lek guessed at his meaning. "Because you don't trust Hux's."

"There are still those who believe me ill qualified to lead in Snoke's absence. They will be dealt with in time. But keeping the Order functional is necessary until we win the war."

"We have ways of enforcing loyalty," Ushar grinned beneath his mask.

"I don't want to hear any more talk of loyalty or disloyalty until I ask about it directly," Ren have Ushar a hard look.

"But that's enough for now. Dismissed."

As the other Knights filed out, Trudgen Ren went to his master.

"Will you be returning to the _Steadfast_ tonight?"

"In the morning," said Ren.

"Excellent. I've already had the Admiral's Suite prepared."

* * *

_A deafening blast of thunder rattled Rey awake. She grabbed her staff and bolted for the entrance to her tent. The dark of the night was further enhanced by pouring rain. A flash of lightning brought a terrifying sight; seven men in black robes and masks were facing her down. The middle figure was holding a crackling red lightsaber. She had seen this before - the first time she touched the blade in her hand. Kylo Ren and his Knights._

__

_"Everyone!" She shouted. "Get out! Get to the ships!"_

_There was no response from the rest of the camp. In fact, as she looked around, there_ was _no camp._

_Ren moved towards her, but before he could close the distance the ground beneath them split open. Streams of blue vapor erupted from the fissure, accompanied by a torrent of blood-chilling wails. The bizarre fog swirled and mounted towards the sky, splitting the storm above open._

_The parted clouds revealed a sky boiling with huge, dagger-shaped spacecraft. Bolts of lightning laced through the walls of clouds intermingling with the vaporous mass coursing from the ground. The cracks in the surface of Ajan Kloss split ever deeper and further, swallowing trees as they traveled into the forest._

_The uncanny union of the smoke and the thunderbolts and the legions of ships in the sky began to form a shape. It had no features inside its nebulous outline, but the sight of it made Rey's heart lurch and her back teeth ache. This was evil beyond reckoning. This was the feeling Luke had experienced when he stood over Ben Solo in his bed that fateful night. Rey's heart lurched when she realized that this also must have been the feeling Luke had when she was first beckoned by the Cave underneath his island home. This was the Dark Side that the Jedi feared, and that Rey only thought she could understand._

_It was then that Rey heard the laughter. Sickly cackling filled with terrible mirth, like the croak of a carrion bird engorged on rotting flesh._

_The shape was becoming more humanoid. It raised its arms, the silhouette of sharp, boney fingers raking across the sky. As if on command, the landscape around Rey transformed. The hills and valleys of Ajan Kloss turned to a fallow waste overlooking a roiling sea, then field of endless grass stained gold in the fading sun, then a d_ e _sert where the sky exploded with bursts color, then nothing at all._

_And Rey fell. That hideous laughter followed her all the way down…_

* * *

The sheets on Kylo Ren's bed had been tossed aside in a hurry. The leader of the First Order was standing bolt upright in the dark, looking for some sort of meaning in the things he had just witnessed.

The pale blue shape of Luke Skywalker flashed into view.

"Ben," his old master's eyes were wide.

"So it's true," Ben read the fear on Luke's ghostly visage.

"That was really him."


	3. The Nightmare

Phasma's boots clanked as she marched into the meeting chamber. A crystal clear blue eye darted back and forth inside her fractured eyepiece, regarding the other two members with her typical icy chill.

She had elected not to repair the damage the rogue trooper FN-2187 had dealt to her helmet four years prior. The gash was worn as a badge of authority, as if daring any of her subordinates to look her in the eye.

"Supreme Leader, what is going on?"

"I sensed something last night. A powerful disturbance in the Force. A darkness that requires our immediate attention."

Hux was familiar with the uncanny power Ren and his disciples could tap into. It was power enough to keep Hux under his thumb these last four years and assume leadership of the First Order after Snoke's demise. This however, was unusual talk from the young leader. Ren's quest for supernatural power was always his own, separate from the workings of the First Order's military.

"This darkness," Phasma's helmet tipped towards the robed man. You believe it to be some sort of weapon?"

"I have mastered the Dark Side of the Force, Captain," Kylo Ren said plainly. "This is unlike anything I've ever felt in person. A Sith Lord. Perhaps even _the_ Sith Lord."

* * *

"The galaxy never truly appreciated the circumstances of the Jedi and the Sith," Luke began. He and Rey were in her tent, the shaken girl preparing a drink for her breakfast.

"To most of them, Darth Vader was the Emperor's enforcer, the wielder of some ancient and terrible power. It wasn't until Endor that the Alliance learned the truth: he was no mere despot. He was a Dark Lord of the Sith, the master to Vader's apprentice. He had abilities that few others could boast. Lightning, fire, devastating power through the Force."

"And now, the ability to return from the dead as well," Rey breathed.

"No," Luke said matter-of-factly. "The Dark Side is not for giving and restoring, but for hoarding and destroying. The Sith craved eternal life but their adherence to the Dark denied them eternal consciousness. They shun the very peace required to join the Force that they would so desire. It's a great irony of the universe."

"So then what did I see last night?"

"I'm not sure. The Dark Side is a pathway to many… unnatural abilities. The Sith cannot transcend death but they can shackle themselves in it. It's not unheard of. One thing's for sure; you need to find him."

* * *

"And what exactly will we do, once we've located the Emperor?" Phasma asked.

"We turn the tide. The Sith were believed extinct - destroyed by Anakin Skywalker. The knowledge they took with them to oblivion is invaluable. Weapons, scientific breakthroughs, secrets beyond comprehension. It could finally end this war."

"The war? The war is just the beginning!"

Hux was pacing back and forth in the meeting room, his eyes ablaze since he heard what Ren had to say.

"We were the Empire's Contingency. To begin again, that was our First Order. If the Emperor is alive, whatever the capacity, then that order is rescinded. Don't you get it, Ren? With Palpatine at our head we can legitimize our rule - become a true Empire!"

"Yes…" Kylo Ren trailed off. "But we get ahead of ourselves. I will summon the Knights. Phasma, start requisitioning reconnaissance droids and auxiliary squads for deployment. I believe we should be looking for the lost bastion of the Sith on Exegol. I was… transported there in my vision."

The room went silent.

"If it's just the same, Supreme Leader," Hux said, "if this bastion was lost in the age of the Jedi and Sith, how could you tell you were there last night?"

Ren looked at him darkly.

"The Force has a way of telling you things. Whispers, in the back of your mind. Believe me, General. I would not forget."

* * *

"But where do we even start looking?" Rose asked. "This 'Exegol' isn't on any star charts. It's probably somewhere out in the Unknowns."

"General Organa doesn't have anymore friends with secret maps out there, does she?" Finn looked at BB-8. The Droid shook its head. Nothing on him.

Rey was standing before the assembled Resistance forces in the small forward base. Luke's stalwart droid companion R2-D2 was recording her, broadcasting a holographic transmission of her briefing to General Organa.

"If what you say is true," Maz Kanata emerged from the mess hall, "then this seems beyond the scope of this Resistance. This is the Jedi's fight."

"Sidious is strong with the Force, but his true talent is in destabilizing galactic power structures," Rey explained what Luke had told her.

"He operated as a normal politician before all of this played out. If he were to align himself with the First Order he could sow chaos across the stars and crush what foothold we already have."

"I agree with Rey," the gruff voice of Lieutenant Bek cut through the crowd.

"I've seen what this guy can do," Lando added. "You ask me he can come back as many times as he wants, there's a lot of debts that need settling."

Chewbacca roared in agreement.

"Well if we're all in agreement, I'm in too," Poe said standing up. "But Rose's question still stands. Where are we actually going?"

"Do you know of a planet called Pasaana?"

Poe's face fell.

"Uh, sure! What's on Pasaana?"

"I don't know. Threepio?"

A golden protocol droid waddled up to the group. C-3PO had been in Leia's family for over fifty years, and always supplied his skills in language and culture - regardless of if he had been asked. He and his associate, the astromech R2-D2, traveled to Ajan-Kloss from Leia's command base on Pacara to help with the cause.

"How can I help, Mistress Rey?"

"Does Pasaana still celebrate the Festival of Ancestors every 28 years?"

"Of course. It is the most sacred holiday of the Aki Aki species. There's dancing, and song, and delectable sweets! And the valley is indeed decorated with vibrant colors farmed from various fungi grown in the tunnels below-"

Finn cut the droid off. "What does this festival have to do with finding Sidious?"

"Luke was on Pasaana during the last Festival. He was chasing someone, thought they would lead him to a Sith Temple. But in his journals he described these colorful smoke bursts that were part of the celebration. It sounded amazing. And I just saw something very similar in my vision last night."

"The Aki Aki are an agrarian society," C-3PO said. "They have very little of the modern technological comforts we enjoy. It would be a prime location to hide from prying eyes."

"That's as good a lead as any," Poe clapped his hands decisively. "Pasaana it is. Great. Everyone else, stay the course while we're gone. Make sure the Order doesn't make any sudden moves."

Rey turned to the old Mon Calamari as the crowd began to filter.

"Lieutenant Bek. If you and Nien Nunb could look around on old Sith planets for clues as to what Sidious was planning or where Exegol might be, that would be a huge help."

"I would be honored," Bek saluted. "We shall prepare a shuttle at once."

"If you have room for one more, I wouldn't mind tagging along," Lando called out to Bek. "Been too long since I've seen any action."

"If you can keep up," Bek laughed. "And if my fellow communications officer agrees."

"Actually, Lieutenant," Connix smiled sheepishly, "I was wondering if I could go with Rey and the others. They're going to need all the help they can get." 

"Indeed," Bek thought about, then nodded. "Indeed! You and I share a rank now, after all. Leave the hunt to us old timers, and try to keep that lot out of trouble."

* * *

"Now, with all due respect, Master Ren, the last time I suggested we repair this, you got rather angry with me."

"That was then, this is now, Cardo."

Cardo Ren nodded and pulled the mask - Kylo Ren's mask - out of the quenching pool. A web of red welds betrayed the number of pieces it had been left in when last Kylo Ren saw it. Once it was a symbol of his devotion to Darth Vader, a safe place in which the weakness of Ben Solo could properly grow into the strength of his current self. But now…

"The journey at hand will be dangerous. What waits at the end even moreso. I will require protection."

Vicrul was lugging a pack loaded with an absurd number of pointed tools.

"Been a while since the whole gang's taken the _Buzzard_ out for a spin, yeah?"

"Just like old times," Ushar replied.

Cardo chuckled as he tossed Trudgen a large sidearm. "Seems like overkill, right? Six of us for half a Jedi?"

"They'll probably have their Wookiee too," Vicrul said. "Never killed a Wookiee before. What about you, boss?"

"No," he said curtly.

Kuruk finished checking the instruments and began cycling the engines on. He turned and nodded to the others.

Kylo Ren finished donning his helmet, the mouthpiece clicking shut with a whisper. He stood before the Knights, his features once again shrouded by unflinching black.

"Listen up. The Resistance will know what we are looking for. Find them. First. Do not let _her_ reach the Emperor before I do."


	4. Pasaana

The _Millennium Falcon_ cruised through Hyperspace, its small crew of rebels within. Rey and Chewie sat at the console, while Connix - who really hadn't spent much time in the ship before this trip - combed over the operating systems. 

Downstairs, Rose was playing holochess with their stowaway. Babu Frik had deemed himself a worthy inclusion of the team and - together with a sack larger than he was full of gear from that box he salvaged from Kijimi - hid himself in a gap in the ship's yellowed wall paneling. Rose wasn't sure if he could hold his own against the First Order, but he had certainly played Sabacc before. The three droids watched the match with rapt attention, C-3PO struggling against the urge to suggest a move to Rose.

Finn ran into Poe as he left the engineering Bay. 

"Holding up?" He asked the pilot.

"She's held together with gizka spit and a prayer, but she still runs," Poe said shaking his head. 

"Cool. Hey, what's on Pasaana?"

"What do you mean?”

“Don’t give me that,” Finn shook his head. “You’ve been there before. I could see it in your face when Rey asked you. What happened there?”

“It’s nothing. Ancient History."

“It's something enough for you to not want to tell me."

"Just let it go, Finn," Poe said bitterly. "It's not important."

* * *

A pack of desert rodents scurried out of the way as the _Falcon_ landed.

"R2, you and Babu are in charge while we're gone," Poe told the droid.

Chewbacca growled and gestured at the small alien.

"I, uh, don't need to repeat that," Poe nodded. "Just stay out of trouble."

"So what's the plan?" Finn asked. "Walk into town and ask the locals if they've seen an old man in a black robe around?"

"Luke's journal says he was after an assassin named Ochi," Rey said. "He knew he was hiding out somewhere on Pasaana but he lost him in the festival."

"How does a dude who can sense other people's thoughts lose someone in a crowd?" Finn asked. And then the group crossed the rise they were climbing and got their first look at the Aki Aki Valley of Ancestors. 

Hundreds of thousands of people, many of them native shrimplike Aki Aki in colorful robes, were milling about rows of stalls, or dancing in huge throngs, or waving banners, or flying kites in the shape of avian creatures.

"I think that's how," Rose whispered.

* * *

"You know what they look like."

A platoon of Stormtroopers filed out of the transport ships flanking the _Night Buzzard_ in the sand.

"You've seen what they're capable of."

Four treadspeeders, bikes with repulsorlifts in the back and heavy duty treads in the front, roared to life.

"Find them. Bring them here. Dead or alive."

The treadspeeders throttled into the desert, trails of dust in their wake.

"Let's get out there too, Knights," Ap'Lek thundered.

"Find something to burn."

* * *

Rey weaved her way through the festival, marveling at the sights and smells around her. Periodically, a burst of brightly colored powder would fire off and explode in the air. It vividly reminded the scene that she beheld in her vision.

"I've never seen anything like this," the young heroine said, grinning widely.

"And I still don't know what we're looking for," Finn lamented.

Rose asked around about Ochi while Connix translated.

"I don't think this is going to work," the engineer sighed, wiping her brow. Ochi didn't just stay put for 20 years after Luke lost him out here. This place can't be all that lively when the Festival isn't on."

"But we also can't go asking about dens of assassins," Connix replied. "That would draw all the wrong kinds of attention."

Chewbacca was perusing a stall of smoked meats in various - and varyingly appetizing - shapes. He was trying to keep a low profile, but 'low' was not a strong suit of the uniformly tall and hairy Wookiees.

A pair of gleaming white helmets craned up over the surface of the crowd.

"Hey, you! Wookiee!"

When Chewie didn't respond, they began to approach.

"Crud," Connix whispered. "Play it cool, Chewie."

"We've got some questions for you, big guy."

Chewbacca loosed a bolt from his bowcaster, sending one of the Troopers flying backwards.

"We've been made!"

"Finn!" Rose radioed her comrades. "Rey! Where did you guys get off to? We need to grab Chewie and get out of here!"

Rey, Finn, Poe, and Threepio saw the crowd shifting a ways off from where they were standing.

"Now would be a good time to pull off one of your cool Jedi tricks, Rey," Poe said quietly.

"Just push everyone out of the way so the three of them can out!" Finn exclaimed.

"How many years have we been doing this? I'm not a wizard!" Rey snapped. "It doesn't work that way!"

Chewie was rampaging now, downing half a dozen Troopers as they tried to rush him with stun cuffs.

"Come on, Chewie!" Connix pulled on the large alien's arm. He wheeled on her angrily, then saw who it was and calmed down. Realizing he probably wasn't helping, the Wookiee lead them away from the carnage.

The crowd devolved into chaos as more Stormtroopers pushed their way through.

"Guys! C'mon, it's time to go," Poe said as he caught sight of them. "I never liked this planet."

Poe lead the crew towards a parade of speeders winding through the crowd. He hopped up onto the lead vehicle and pushed an Aki Aki pageant queen over the side.

"Sorry about this, ma'am!"

He pointed urgently at the speeder behind him.

"Get in, everyone! We need to move!"

Rey and Connix opened fire as Finn and Rose helped the droids into the speeders. Aki Aki ran screaming for the tents, looking for what shelter they could. Two more troopers fell as Poe kicked the engine into high gear and plowed out of the festival grounds.

Three Troopers surveyed what was left of their platoon. The commander switched his radio on.

"Send them in!"

* * *

The rebels sped through a canyon leading out of the valley. Poe, Finn, Connix, and Threepio lead the caravan in one speeder while Rey, Rose, Chewie, and BB-8 minded the rear.

The rebels sped through a canyon leading out of the valley. Poe, Finn, Connix, and Threepio lead the caravan in one speeder while Rey, Rose, Chewie, and BB-8 minded the rear.

"Do you think we lost them?"

"Nope," the former Stormtrooper pointed back into the canyon. Four clouds of dust trailed upwards from the ground, where four small shapes were growing larger as they neared.

"They've got treadspeeders," Finn said gravely. "I always wanted to get assigned to one of those."

"They fast? Faster than us?" Poe shouted over the roar of the engine.

"It's not the speeders you have to worry about."

From the backs of two of the speeders, a pair of Stormtroopers with rocket packs launched into the air.

"It's the Jet Troopers!"

The new Troopers whizzed around the speeders peppering them with fire from their triple-blasters.

"Next war, I want _our_ side to have the flying soldiers!" Connix shouted.

"Stand back!" Rey called to Rose and Chewie as she lit up her saber. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Luke told her this was the first thing Jedi learned to do. It should be simple.

As a bolt of laserfire from the Jet Trooper's rifle came down, Rey deftly moved her lightsaber into its path, causing the blast to ricochet off of the blade and down to the ground. The other Trooper concentrated their fire on her as she started deflecting more of their fire. She was doing better than the first few times she had tried the technique, until she became overzealous and began leading the shots as though she were in a batting cage. While she twisted around the flying enemies found an opening and winged her in the calf, sending her to the floor of the speeder. Chewie retaliated by knocking one out of the sky with his bowcaster.

"Did that feel as cool as it looked?" Rose asked.

"It doesn't feel very cool now," Rey groaned, rubbing her bruised elbows.

A new speeder pulled up alongside the Stormtroopers' bikes and quickly outpaced them. This one was manned by Troopers in bright red armor with t-shaped visors in their helmets.

One of the Jet Troopers still on their treadspeeder nudged the driver and pointed to the newcomers.

"Reinforcements?"

"First I've heard of it," his comrade called back. The red Stormtroopers did not acknowledge the white clad ones. In fact, they barely moved at all as they ran their vehicle closer to the rebels.

"They come in red now!" C-3PO tittered, pawing on Finn's shoulder and pointing.

"They come in red now?" Poe yelled back to Finn.

"They come in red now," Finn shrugged. He had certainly never seen armor like that in his time with the Order. His superiors would have had him reprogrammed just for getting a stain on his uniform.

As their speeder got into position behind the Resistance caravan, the red Troopers mounted several long cannons to rotating bases and started charging it up. They plused, and then sent a bolt of red blaster fire into the undercarriage of the rear speeder. Then a second volley, then a third. All with alarming accuracy.

"Ladies, you aren't going to be able to take many more hits like that," Poe called back.

"They're ripping them up! Provide more air support!" The treadspeeder driver ordered.

The second pair of Jet Troopers vaulted into the air and past the red newcomers. But before they could reach Rey and the others, the lead flyer was pierced straight through by a blaster shot, and dove in an ungraceful spiraling arc down to the ground.

The mysterious "reinforcements" took out the second Jet Trooper and rotated their weapons towards the treadspeeders.

"Fall back!" The driver ordered his teammates. The bike directly next him exploded in a rain of sparks as the red forces shot it through the engine. The other treadspeeders broke formation and bolted back deeper into the canyon. Only one survived long enough to ride out of sight.

"They know those are their own guys, right?" Connix asked.

"Unless they aren't," Poe realized.

"Well they don't seem to like us much, either!" Rey shouted back. With the First Order taken care of, the red Troopers redoubled their assault on the Resistance.

As the chase exited the valley, Finn spotted yet more transports heading their way. It was a pair of very large skiffs, twice as tall as the speeders and with billowing red flags waving at their tops. They were approaching from the side, and looked to be aiming to intercept them head first.

"Uh, guys?"

The red interlopers must have also noticed the skiffs, as they paused their assault to fire on them. The swivel-blasters pinged harmlessly off of the lead skiff's large metal prow as it swooped into the side of the speeder and bent it in two.

Poe wasn't paying much attention to the mayhem behind him. He pulled the two speeders into a sharp braking turn as the second skiff came up in front to cut off the Resistance's advance.

"Oh my," C-3PO fretted. "Now what?"

One of the red Troopers pried themselves out of the wreck and drew their service pistol. But before he could get off a shot he was blasted twice in the chest, piercing his armor and killing him. Above their body on the deck of the skiff, now returning a pair of blunderbusses to their side holsters, was a figure. They were clad from the neck down in a burgundy jumpsuit with bronze straps and braces up and down its length. Over their head they wore a bronze helmet with a black sun visor that obscured their features.

"Mr. Dameron!" The helmeted figure shouted down as more people gathered on the deck. It was a woman.

"You must be the worst navigator in the Galaxy! The Captain sent you out for those converter cables oh, what was it? Ten years ago?"

"Not important, he said." Finn muttered.

"Zorii! Hi. New helmet, right? Kidding. I know I'm the last person you wanted to see. Just bring me to the Captain, tell him Poe Dameron wants to parlay."

"The old man is gone, Poe," Zorii said, removing the visor from her helmet. Hey eyes burned into Poe like the desert sun.

"It's Captain Bliss, now. We can catch up after we're back in the Crawler."


	5. The Sandcrawler

It was half-submerged in sand, sticking up at an imposing angle. A Sandcrawler, one of the mobile fortresses of the Jawa people, long since abandoned. Several of the side panels had been stripped away - Rey suspected that Zorii's crew had repurposed them as the sturdy rams on their skiffs.

"I never thought I'd see this place again," Poe breathed. "It hasn't changed much."

The Resistance had been brought aboard the main skiff, their bags and weapons confiscated. Several members of Zorii's crew were keeping watch over them.

"Kylo Ren is out there, scouring the Galaxy for Exegol's location," Rey whispered. "And we're stuck here, kidnapped by sand pirates!"

"We'll figure out a way to escape," Finn said. "We've got an inside man, here."

"That's pretty good coming from the Stormtrooper who defected," Poe shot back.

"Is this really important?" Rose asked sharply.

"Just keep it casual," Rey said. "I have a plan."

* * *

"Let's start from the top. What brings you back to the old stomping grounds? Saw you mixing it up with those red guys out there."

"Then you saw us being chased by the First Order," Connix said. "We're no friends of theirs."

"No. But you could be friends of the Bounty Hunters' Guild. You could catch a pretty haul out here in pirate territory."

A blonde Wookiee brought out a shock prod.

"I'm sure you wouldn't want to hurt your old friend Poe anyway," the pilot said. "But you really don't want to hurt a Resistance General."

"I heard you had run off to join the Resistance," Zorii scoffed. "But you? A _general?_ "

"We had a lot of vacancies."

"Is this what passes for a Resistance Unit these days, then?" Zorii took the stick and paced before the line of rebels. She stopped at Rey.

"Not very impressive. But you - have we met?"

"Maybe you've seen my face before," Rey said calmly. "The First Order has been looking for me for a long time."

"Miss Popularity. What did you do to get on their radar?"

"Look in my bag. You'll see who I am."

Zorii stuck her arm in Rey's pack and rummaged around for a few second. She pulled out the silver body of Rey's saber.

"This some kind of joke?" Zorii asked. Her voice had softened somewhat.

"It's not a joke. Turn it on, if you want. It's real."

"You're a Jedi. Like in the stories. You're the Spark that everyone's been talking about since Crait?"

"Yes. And we really are with the Resistance," Rey smiled. "And together, we can save the Galaxy."

"They don't care about that, Rey," Poe chuckled.

"They care because they heard that Maz Kanata threw her lot in with a Jedi - the Pirate Queen has your back."

* * *

The mood changed dramatically once they knew that Poe and his new friends were allies of Maz.

This Sandcrawler, and this crew, was where Poe had spent a solid portion of his youth. Here he learned his particularly reckless flying style, his marksmanship, and other skills. Bowdaar, the Wookiee from earlier, had even taught him how to interpret Shyriiwook.

"I didn't know Maz was a pirate," Rose whispered.

Chewbacca grunted a few times in response.

"She's not, really," Connix explained. "Well, maybe she was a few centuries ago, not sure there's anyone who could vouch for her around these days. She kept a strict neutrality policy. Whatever side, whatever job you're on, it didn't apply on Takodana. Made her the right sort of disreputable for a lot of people like these guys."

The interior of the Sandcrawler was hollowed out and dug into a bit of solid ground close to the surface of the sand fields. It was a dark, cool shelter from Pasaana's unforgiving sun. Many more pirates than Poe ever recalled working for the group were gathered there when Zorii and the Rebels entered. They started raucously cheering in varied languages as their leader entered.

"Welcome to the Crawler. Feel free to find a comfy place to sit."

She turned to the pilot.

"Well, Poe, you wanted to parlay with the captain, let's parlay. What brings you to Pasaana after so many years?"

"What do you know about the Sith?" Rose asked.

The room fell immediately silent.

"The Sith as in... Darth Vader stuff? We don't deal in antiquities - not for the First Order trash today, and never for the Imps before that."

Poe tried to defuse the situation.

"We have reason to believe the Empire, or something related to it, had a hidden base here."

"So you're chasing ghosts."

"You don't know the half of it," Finn muttered.

"We think they chose Pasaana because it was out of the spotlight," Rey added. "The work they were doing here wouldn't have been tolerated if it were discovered."

Zorii pondered the words for a moment. She exchanged a glance with Bowdaar.

"If I wanted to do something that the locals wouldn't find out about, I'd do it in the Forbidden Valley."

"Right," Poe said, "I guess I forgot about the Valley."

"What's the Forbidden Valley?" Rose asked. "Why is it forbidden?"

"Because it's a death trap," Zorii's eyes widened for emphasis as she spoke the words. "There's loads of caves under there that make the ground unstable. Only the truly hardcore - or the truly desperate - try to cross it."

A murmur went through the crew.

"That's how the old man went," she finished.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Zorii," Poe said softly.

"Just watch your backs out there, should be fine. In the meantime," she said, standing up, "We've got Second Meal in the pot, so rest up. We'll shove off for the Forbidden Valley in a few hours.

" _Hours?_ That's not good enough."

The other pirates took a step closer to Rey when she spoke out.

"We don't have time for stew and a nap, we're on a very important mission!"

"It's almost midday, Jedi," Zorii said measuredly. "Desert takes its toll on the body when the sun is highest."

"I grew up on Jakku, I think I can manage."

"That so?" Zorii raised an eyebrow. "Well, were your friends from Jakku, too? Or are they not quite as hardened to the elements as you? Sit. Have some chow. We'll get you back on your 'mission' in due time."

* * *

"So, _General_ Poe Dameron, eh? That's pretty big."

" _Captain_ Zorii Bliss isn't too bad either, you know."

The two former compatriots were heading down into the hangar where the crew stored their spacecraft. BB-8 rolled along behind them.

"Happened about two years back. Worst rainy season I've ever seen. Old Man was running some water tankards through the badlands. Skiff took a hit, sank straight through the mud.

"That's a rough way to go," Poe shook his head. "But probably how he'd have wanted it."

"His will left the fleet to me. The crew was supportive of it. I have a feeling - if you had stuck around - he would have picked you, though."

"Nah, he always liked you best," Poe said. "I could fly, better than anyone, but I wasn't ready to lead back then. That took a long time."

"The Resistance was lucky to get you. Could have used a pilot with your talents once or twice. Haven't had the heart to take an offworld job since the Captain died. The crew is getting antsy, but business has been good down here. The fleet has been down here gathering dust in the meantime."

"There they are, the old girls!" Poe ran ahead towards a line of Alliance-era Y-Wings. BB-8 ran after him.

"I loved these things. How'd you get them down here?"

"Very carefully," Zorii said with a laugh. "I'm sure they're a lot more beat up than what you're used to. What do they have generals flying in, these days? A shiny new Hammerhead? A big flagship?"

"The Resistance makes due with what it has. It's not as glitzy as you think it is. The fanciest thing they ever gave me was BB-8 here, isn't that Right buddy?"

He gave the droid an affectionate scratch.

"Right now I'm flying with Rey in a little ship called the _Millennium Falcon_ \- maybe you've heard of it?"

"No way," Zorii was agape under her helmet. "You get to fly Han Solo's ship? What's it like?"

"You… kind of have to see it to believe it," he shrugged. "But it fits all of us. Usually it's just me and BB-8 zipping around in a modified T-70."

Zorii laughed.

"You and your damn X-Wings."

* * *

Rey was eating her stew in a manner that Rose probably would have described as "aggressive." She sat down next to the Scavenger.

"Are you okay? I've never seen you this amped up about anything, Rey."

She put her bowl down and sighed.

"I can't stand this waiting! It could jeopardize everything! Luke's entire family legacy was tied to Sidious. If he's plotting a return somehow, there are no more Skywalkers left to face him. There's only me, and I'm stuck down here… stewing."

She looked at the worry in Rose's face.

"I'n sorry. None of that is your fault."

"I get it. This Emperor seems crazy scary. But you can't let him get in your head. You're not alone in this."

"Rey smiled, but there wasn't much joy in it.

"I wouldn't be here without all of you. I've owed each of you my life at least once. But when it comes down to it, I'm the only one who can fight him. And I don't know if I'm ready."

* * *

The treadspeeder sputtered into camp. It banked into a hard stop, tilted over, and dumped its occupant in the dirt.

"Well you look like Hell," Cardo Red said, half amused. "Scavenger and her friends fight back?"

"I'm the only one who made it back," the pilot wheezed. "But it wasn't the Resistance. They were Stormtroopers."

"You were fired on by another unit? That's a serious breach of code. What were their identification codes?"

"No serial numbers, sir. These ones were… red. And they… had these insane blasters."

He clutched his chest, where the black of his body suit was darkened by blood.

"I don't feel very well, Cardo Ren, sir. Permission to report to the medics?"

"Sure. Yeah. Go!" Cardo pushed him forward. He wasn't sure he would see the officer alive again to debrief him. Ap'Lek would be very interested in this development…

* * *

Zorii kept her word, and a little while after the sub passed its zenith the captain and her crew delivered the rebel band to the edge of the Forbidden Valley.

"I don't expect we'll see you again until after nightfall. If we see you again at all, that is."

"Zorii, come on, don't be like that."

"It's not all about you, Dameron. I meant you could _die_. There's sinking sand, there's dust typhoons, and then there's the stuff that wants to eat you."

"You guys picked the nicest place for my first field mission," Connix grumbled.

"Anyway, if you do survive, use this flare when you're ready for pickup."

"Thank you, Zorii," Rey said, shaking the pirate's hand.

"Don't thank me til you make it out of there alive," Zorii replied.

The Resistance bid farewell to the sand pirates and started their trek.

Over an hour later, their patience was wearing thin.

"Not so much as a tunnel entrance," Rey sighed as she passed a canteen to Poe. "If it's this bad now, I was a fool for thinking that we could survive out here at midday."

Chewie bellowed his discomfort.

"I'll never be cold again," Finn complained.

"Rey, why don't you like, meditate or something," Connix asked. "Hone in on any bad Sith vibes around here."

"I keep telling you all, the Force isn't magic. I can't just waggle my fingers and find hidden-"

She froze in place.

"I guess I have good news and bad news."

The ground swallowed all eight of them up in a puff of sand, leaving only the end of a line of footprints to mark where they stood.


	6. Underground

Rey's eyes stung from the intrusion of a deluge of sand. She was pulled down further and further, until she fell back first into an opening.

She drew her lightsaber and lit the cavern blue, looking around for what sort of creature might have dragged her down to its burrow. But there was nothing around her. It was a tunnel, now slowly filling with sand from the cave-in above. Rey moved further down its length to avoid being buried once more.

 _Lost,_ a voice whispered. _Alone. Abandoned again._

"Who's there?"

The sand shifted beside her and the round head of BB-8 gave a woozy beep.

"BB-8, you're alright. Good. Where are the others?"

"Rey!" Finn's voice echoed through the tunnels.

"Finn? Where are you?"

Chewbacca's roar answered her back.

"You sound close to us, but it's too dark to see anything!"

"Stay there, I'm coming!"

Rey continued by the light of her saber through the crumbling corridors.

_Can you save him?_

_Can you save anyone?_

The air was cooler, protected from the desert sun. In fact, as Rey progressed further it became almost unpleasantly cold.

_Or will you fail?_

"Poe? Rose? Anyone out there?"

She nearly stepped off a ledge into the black void beyond, but caught herself at the last moment.

"Rey! We see you! We're down here!"

Rey's eyes adjusted enough to see the faint shape of her friends down below.

"Hang on. Um," she unlatched her staff and pointed it down into the pit. "Grab on!"

With some effort, she was able to help Finn out of his predicament. Chewie was much larger though, and would require a different solution.

"Rey? Finn? Is that you?"

The glimmer of a flashlight shone around the corner. Rose and Connix, with C-3PO in tow, stepped into the chamber.

"Guys! You're alright," Finn exclaimed. "But… where's Poe?"

"We were hoping he was with you," Rose said. "Here, take a flashlight."

"Help us find a place where Chewie can climb out," Rey motioned down to the trapped Wookiee.

_Trapped_

_Hopeless_

The four of them felt around in the dark for a while, until they found a spot on the other side of the tunnel where the sand had worn the edge of the pit down. The slope was now gradual enough for the tall alien to free himself.

"That's all of us," Finn said, doing a quick headcount. "Except Poe."

"Though the sand interferes with my sensors," Threepio offered, "I do detect a life signature further down that passage."

* * *

The tunnel Threepio picked lead steadily downward, until it reached an intersecting passage. The walls here were narrow and rounded. As Rey stepped out into it, she immediately felt the air become warmer and damper. And more importantly, those unsettling voices seemed to fall silent.

"Ah," Rey sighed with relief. "It feels much better in here."

Finn looked at her with disbelief. "You were cold? I was just getting used to not roasting."

"Must be a 'Jakku' thing," Connix whispered.

"Look over there!" Rose's voice bounced around the curvature of the tunnel. Staggering a few yards ahead of them was Poe.

"Poe!" The three others said at once. They ran to him.

"Oh guys, am I glad to see you," Poe said as Connix offered him another flashlight.

"But you might want to keep it down. I don't know who made this tunnel but we don't want to wake it up."

"Do you mean… this is…"

"This was some kind of animal," Poe said. He pointed his flashlight at a translucent molted skin hanging over the edge of a rock.

"Eeewww…" Rose whispered. "Do you think it's close by?"

She was answered with guttural hiss.

A creature slithered out of the darkness. Reared up eight feet tall with six eyes and sharp, dripping fangs, its body stretched far back into the cavern.

"Oh my," C-3PO tittered. "A Vexis Serpent!"

"Get your blasters out, folks," Poe said quickly.

"No," Rey motioned for him to put his gun away.

She handed the saber to Finn and approached the serpent, her hands open and facing outward to show that she was unarmed.

"Finn…" Poe said slowly.

"Shh!" He chided.

Rey closed her eyes. She felt her heartbeat, and the heartbeat of the Vexis. Gradually the rhythms synchronized. The serpent momentarily recoiled as she stepped over one of its coils, but relented. Rey now saw what she had sensed before - a nasty wound on the snake's body.

"I'm gonna blast it," Poe whispered.

"Do _not_ blast it!" Connix snapped.

Rey put her hand on the wound. The Vexis gave a short hiss. Then it watched as the wound closed. The lingering pain that it had carried for the last several days suddenly subsided. The snake regarded Rey with its glassy eyes, then retreated into the tunnel, its long body making a heavy scraping sound off in the distance.

"Okay," Poe said. "Let's go, before we meet any other big snakes.

Chewbacca roared, and set off after Poe.

"Wow," Rose murmured.

BB-8 chittered inquisitively.

"I just transferred a bit of life - Force Energy from me to him. You would have done the same."

Internally, Rey was shaking. She learned the healing technique from the old books she took from Ach-To, but she had never tried it before. Transference of life essence was as dangerous as it sounded - you lose some of your life as it flows into the target. In small bursts it eventually replenishes, but it was no wonder the practice fell out of use once Bacta rose to prominence.

The entrance to a new tunnel branched off of the one they were in. It had squared off walls, artificially made. The serpent's home must have cut straight through it.

"There's probably a way out through here," Poe said. "Come on."

When she crossed the threshold, Rey felt that chill return to the air…

* * *

This place was in much better shape than the tunnels above the serpent's den. The remnants of carvings in the wall could be made out, getting clearer as they descended further.

"Why are we going down? Shouldn't we be heading up?" Connix said worriedly.

"Whoever built this place had to have a way in and out," Poe replied. "This has to lead somewhere."

And soon it did. A large square chamber with three other exits opened up in front of them. Openings in the wall, partially overflowing with sand, filled the room with deep violet light from the fading evening above. Straight ahead of the rebels was a door carved from dark stone. On either side of the doorway were metal statues, about ten feet high, of robed men with hands splayed out in meditation.

The wall art in this chamber was almost pristine. Humanoid shapes depicted in lurid reds and blacks, set against dark silver metal inlays.

"No latches panels to open the door," Connix frowned.

Rey doused her saber and approached the door, which seemed to slide open of its own accord when she raised her hand.

She turned to her friends.

"Shall we?"

They stepped into an arena, or perhaps a theater. Curved rows of empty benches gathered dust on the perimeter of the room. More statues lined the room, staring eerily at the group through gold plated masks as they fanned out around the room. Encircling the arena floor was a carved inscription.

C-3PO looked back and forth across the carvings.

"Interesting. The text appears to be written in Sith, the ancient language of the, well, the Sith."

"So Luke was right," Rey said. "There was a Dark Sider cult here, underneath the locals' noses. That explains why the door opened for the Force."

"Can you translate it?" Poe asked.

"Of course. I am fluent in over six million forms of communication. But this is a very unpleasant language, I'll have you know."

"Well we don't have all day, Threepio," Connix groaned.

Threepio shuffled about in an arc as he read.

"Let's see. 'The Light… will… expire, and the Sith… will rule eternal.' Hmm. Well I don't like the sound of that."

"Neither do I," Rey said. There was a numb feeling in her ears. The whispers had become too faint to make out, but now she could hear it constantly. Standing in this room there seemed to be many voices at once, and from all directions.

"The Sith Eternal…" Rey shuddered.

"Something about this place is _wrong_ ," Rose voiced what most of the others were feeling.

"So let's see what we can find and get out of here," Poe nodded.

"So let's see what we can find and get out of here," Poe nodded. "This whole trip has me on edge."

"I didn't notice," Finn said drily, kicking aside some dust with his boot.

"There's something on the floor here. A mural."

"A big one," Connix said, helping him brush aside the sand. "Who's this guy in the middle?"

"One of the old Sith. Way before the Republic," Rey said. "Saw these banners on a relic the Ren were after a few years back. Not sure of the name."

"What's that he's holding?

Chewbacca knelt down to the silver sphere the masked figure held in their hand. He pointed to a statue on the other side of the room in the same pose.

"Not the same Sith Lord," Poe pondered. "But…" He grabbed the statue's arm, and it pivoted downward.

"Aha!" Good one, Chewie!"

The Wookiee crossed his arms behind his head proudly.

The sound of machinery under the floor hummed, and a cylinder rose from the mural. It flashed blue, then projected an image across the room. Thousands of tiny points of light danced around the rebels, some of them with names over them.

"It's a star map," Finn said. "Looks like it has other Cult locations on it."

Rose walked through the projection and cupped her hand around an empty space on the map.

"Finn, Hosnian Prime is missing. And this section of the Unknowns was mapped less than ten years ago. It would have been Wild Space when Skywalker wrote in his journal. This is a _current_ map."

"Which means someone was here recently?"

"Not sure who, or how long ago," Poe replied. "But certainly after Luke was here."

Rey's gaze was fixed on the robed statues encircling the Rebels. The hollow eyes of their masks bored into her.

"If you don't mind," Rey said, snapping them back to reality, "I'd like to look around a bit more."

"Connix and I will look for an exit," Poe said. "They didn't get in and out of here by falling in quicksand."

"C'mon Threepio," Rose said, pulling the droid along behind her. She popped the drive out of the projector on her way past.

BB-8 looked at Rey with a low, slow beep.

"If you want to stay with Rey for a little while, I'll stick around too," Finn said to the little astromech.

* * *

Rose and the others had been walking for a few minutes. The air was starting to feel drier; they must have been heading in the right direction.

"So, which do you think came first? The big snake or the creepy cultists?"

"Creatures like the Vexis can have burrows spanning several miles, and are quite territorial," Threepio tittered. "It's very likely that the beings who dug these tunnels breached part of it while the temple was being built."

"Kind of explains why the whole place is empty," Poe muttered.

"It was already secret to start with, now it's secret and abandoned. A good place to store… whatever this map is," Connix added.

Rose dragged his hand across an image of a pack of wolf-like creatures carved into the stone wall.

"How do we know the map isn't networked into something, that it hasn't just been updating to Galactic Standard as the years went on?"

"Because if it were networked, someone could track it. And these guys have been hiding out for a while."

"If I might add, Mistress Connix," said C-3PO, "The central chamber we found the map in is much too far underground for an interplanetary frequency to penetrate without the use of a communication tower. There's simply no way it would have connected."

"My thoughts exactly, Threepio."

"The sediment in this sand has even been jamming my local sensors. They're improving as we get higher. For example - oh my."

"Doesn't sound good," Poe sighed.

"I detect two very faint life signs just ahead."

The passage lead into a room with an array of tubes, not unlike the older model Bacta tanks the Resistance sometimes had to use. Four of them were open and empty, but two were fogged over - evidently active.

Rose got closer to one of the tubes and wiped away some condensation with her hand. She immediately leapt back as if burned.

"What happened?" Poe said, alarmed.

Rose could only point at the pod, where Poe and Connix could now see the bright red mask of those strange Stormtroopers between tendrils of fog...

* * *

"Terrible things were done here," Rey muttered. She was picking at the intricate murals on the floor with Trudgen's knife. As the sun dipped lower into the sky the stones set in the mural began to emit pale blue and purple light. They were glyphs of ancient Sith Lords atop large, pyramid shaped weapons.

"It's kind of scary to know just how far back all this goes. Armies of faceless drones, super laser weapons the size of buildings, creepy masked overlords," Finn's voice trailed off as he traced some symbols on the wall with his finger. A new panel, not yet discolored by age, showed the destruction of Alderaan during the first test of the Death Star.

"Still it's a little comforting, isn't it?" This has all happened before, and it turned out alright then."

"Yes, I suppose-"

A feeling came over Rey.

"No."

"No what? Are you okay?" Finn suddenly became concerned.

It was a sensation that, years before, Snoke had claimed responsibility for. The bridge between her mind and the mind of Ben Solo. Yet Snoke was dead, and now here that feeling came again.

"No, not now!"

Rey tried to keep her focus out of the link, but it was no use.

When she opened her eyes, she was in the dreamlike space between their minds. The temple still surrounded her, but the air was still and silent. And standing before her was a man dressed all in black. His face was hidden by a mask covered in cracks.

Kylo Ren. Ben Solo.

"Hello, Rey."


	7. The Encounter

"It's been awhile," Kylo Ren began.

"Since Batuu," the girl snarled. "And not long enough, if you ask me."

"It's him, isn't it?" Finn whispered as he saw Rey talking to the air. He tapped the small droid on the head.

"Come on, BB-8. Let's give her some space. This could get ugly."

"Where are you?' Ben asked. "The Dark Side… it's very strong there."

"What are you doing in my head?" Rey asked, ignoring him.

"Can you hear the voices?"

"Answer me!"

"You _can._ The thrall of this place is tearing you apart."

Kylo Ren circled closer to Rey. She ignited her saber, and he reacted in kind.

* * *

Rose, Poe, Connix, Chewbacca, and C-3PO were gathered around a pair of hibernation pods, in which two red Stormtroopers were suspended.

When it was clear that the strange adversaries weren't aware of their surroundings, Connix went closer.

"Are these the guys that attacked our speeders this morning?"

"No," Poe shook his head. "Zorii put a double tap right through one of them. They weren't coming back. And this armor doesn't show any damage."

"But they did come from here. Take a look at this."

Rose and Chewie had opened up a locker with a handful of red laser-printed blasters. Several of them were missing, by the empty depressions in the foam.

"So they weren't working for the First Order," Connix breathed.

"They're part of the Sith Eternal."

"Why keep them on ice though?" Rose wondered aloud.

"We're still missing a lot of pieces here," Poe shook his head.

Chewbacca roared and fired his bowcaster once into each of the pods. The glass shattered, spilling cryogenic fluid into the floor with a billowing cloud of vapor.

"Chewie!" Connix shouted. "What are you doing?"

"And I thought you were paranoid about this place," Rose snickered.

"Hey! It's good to be a bit cautious, when there's weirdos in red suits hunting you."

* * *

The two former students of Luke Skywalker clashed, and for a moment as the blades crossed Rey found herself transported. It was a stark white room, lit with the familiar fixtures of a First Order craft. When the lightsabers repelled each other, the scene faded.

"And the worst part is," Ben continued. "That voice you hear, whispering in your ear? It's your own voice. You think I don't understand, but I'm the _only_ one who does."

"You're wrong. I will not succumb to the Dark. I'm not like you!"

"How do you think you beat me on Starkiller four years ago? A girl with no training, who only learned she was Force sensitive a few hours before? You wanted to hurt me."

Striking with his own lightsaber, Ben could now see the ceremonial chamber that Rey was standing in. A Sith Temple? Interesting.

"You killed Han Solo. You were going to kill me."

"No. I wasn't. I thought, as I thought on the _Supremacy_ , that you would join me. That we would unlock your potential together. I was wrong. You feared me. You hated me. You tapped into that power, and it made you strong."

"I've felt the pull of the Dark Side before. That night on Ach-To. I didn't fear it then."

"You sound just like him. Skywalker."

They clashed again, and Ben was back in the temple. His eyes darted around inside his mask, looking for any clues the room might have held.

"Have you considered that your first instinct may have been right?" Ben asked. "That it wasn't the Dark you needed to fear?"

"You were there, that night. In my nightmare. It wasn't just a vision, it was a link. You sensed Darth Sidious just as I did."

Rey swung wide, and connected with something in the white chamber. In the temple, shards of ashen metal clattered to the ground at Rey's feet.

"You know what he's capable of!"

"I do. He is fear; personified. But his power is endless."

Rey's eyes blazed. The whispers, gradually crescendoing in her ears, were now a dull, cacophonous roar.

"And so here you are, chasing after him, ready to bow before another master? The man so ready to kill his past, but I see through your mask. I see the same frightened boy cowering inside."

"Four years, and you still don't get it!" Kylo Ren raged, pushing her backwards with the Force.

Rey, blinded to the world around her by the connection, and by her laser focus on Kylo Ren, did not see six figures clad in black silently enter the chamber…

"Palpatine is the most powerful force in the universe. When I find him, there will be no Skywalkers, no Jedi, _nothing_ to stand in my way! You think you can save your friends? That you can 'save the Galaxy?' You're untrained, out of your depth."

_You can't save anyone_

"What did you just say?" Rey whispered.

"I said you can't save anyone. You can't even save yourself."

Rey screamed. She instinctively thrust her arm forward, and a bolt of purple lightning lanced out of her fingertips…

…Straight through the torso of Kuruk Ren. The other Knights of Ren stopped cold, dumbstruck by what they had just seen.

Rey looked at Kuruk's smoking from lying prone on the floor, then down at her hand in horror. A visible tremor ran through it.

In the white chamber, Kylo Ren took off his helmet and shook loose his hair. His heart still pounded in his chest.

The Knights now resumed their advance, stepping over Kuruk and raising their weapons. Rey was too shaken to react. Her saber lay at her feet, dropped after she had created the lightning.

Salvation came in the form of the ceiling collapsing. With a roar, the Vexis bore down on the black clad warriors. It turned to Rey with a sad, profound look in its many eyes.

"Thank you," Rey whispered as she grabbed her weapon and turned to run. The serpent fought valiantly with its sharp fangs and thick tail. But the Knights of Ren were predators…

* * *

"Never killed a Vexis before," Vicrul said as the Knights looked over the snake's body.

"It sure made a mess of this place," Trudgen sighed. "Bet there was some lovely Ancient Sith craftsmanship to take in."

He stopped down to reclaim his knife.

"Still, not a total loss, eh, old friend?

"Does nobody want to talk about what just happened to Kuruk?" Ushar said. He and Cardo had their fallen comrade propped upright against their shoulders, ready to carry him back to the _Buzzard_.

"That girl is just full of surprises, isn't she Ap'Lek?" Trudgen snickered.

"This could change our strategy considerably," Ap'Lek said, after a moment. "We should inform Master Ren immediately."

"I think he knows, Ap'Lek," Vicrul said, pointing downward.

In pieces on the ground was their leader's most prized possession: the charred helmet of Darth Vader.

* * *

"Hang on, you're sure _this_ is the _Millennium Falcon?_ " Zorii said incredulously. "For all we know there could be a bunch of ships called that these days."

The eight of them had met up above ground and fired off the flare to summon Zorii's crew.

Chewbacca growled at the pirate indignantly.

"No, this is the real deal," Poe smiled. "She's not much to look at, maybe, but she more than makes up for it. I wish I got to fly it more often."

"You can drive," Rey said, her voice thin. "I need to rest."

"Sounds like everyone wins," Poe said brightly.

"Hey, Jedi," Zorii jogged over to her. "Are you okay? You look like you got bit by a rock wart."

"No, no, I'm fine," Rey said, taking a few steps back from Zorii. "I ran into an old enemy of mine down there. Just a little shaken."

"Well, keep an eye on it, I guess," Zorii said. She was a bit confused as to how she could have met _anyone_ down there, much less the First Order.

"Thank you Captain Bliss. For getting us into the valley, and for getting us out of it."

Bowdaar growled.

"And for the stew, yes," Rey smiled weakly. But when she turned to walk up the ramp to the Falcon, the smile dissolved back into a grimace of fear.

"So, guess this is goodbye, again," Poe shuffled his foot in the sand.

"You know where to find me if you want to get into some trouble," Zorii nodded. "If you're still into that sort of thing."

Poe reached into his pocket and produced a small round token. "And if you feel like a different kind of trouble, the Resistance could always use an extra pair of hands."

Zorii turned over the token - a location beacon - in her hands.

"You should get going, Mr. Dameron. But I'll hold onto this."

And a few minutes later, the _Falcon_ was back in the air.


	8. The Red Ones

_"How goes the ground mission, Captain?"_

"We've crossed the lava flats, proceeding to the main objective," Phasma said to Hux coolly as she motioned for a half dozen Troopers to leave cover and provide suppressing fire.

"Leader Ren is serving as vanguard."

The sound of blood thrummed in Kylo Ren's ears. He surged across fields of loamy ash dodging mortar fire from the armaments above, slashing at anyone who dates approach him. Yet all he could think about was the prize at the top.

Mustafar was once a volcanically active mining planet that played a key role in the Clone Wars. But more important than that was the garrison the Empire established afterwards. Fortress Vader, a monolithic black castle named for the terrible Sith Lord who called it home, stood high above the battlefield on a rock outcropping. Some time after the Empire moved in, a shift in thermal activity at the planet's core restored its ability to support vegetation. Kylo sprinted through wiry trees as he deflected the blaster shots coming from up ahead.

Since Vader's death, many made the pilgrimage to the Dark Lord's castle seeking power and enlightenment. But Lord Vader's attendants sealed the palace shortly after the battle of Endor. The pilgrims were forced to join their ranks and defend the castle, or perish. In the thirty years since the Empire fell those defenders had swelled in number.

Kylo Ren would kill every one of them personally to secure his birthright.

 _"I would have thought these zealots would be quite preoccupied with reaching Exegol themselves,"_ Hux said over the radio, _"what with the imminent return of Palpatine coming."_

"These fools know nothing of the Force," Ren growled, tackling a cultist to the ground and running him through with his saber.

"They saw the power Darth Vader commanded and believed the source of it was in this Fortress. They think he was a god, and that this is a holy sight."

 _"Then what_ is _here?"_

"Peace. Lord Vader came here to escape endless noise of war. And the prattling of his subordinates. General."

_"Noted."_

* * *

Rey was staring at her hand again.

"Hey, Rey?"

At her door were Finn and Rose.

"We're worried about you," Rose said. "Finn told me you connected to Kylo Ren down in the temple."

Rey looked pale as she turned to her friends.

"I lost control. Of the Force. I allowed my anger to… oh, God, it's never felt his way before."

"What happened to Ren?"

"Got away. Or was never really here. It's hard to explain. But I think we have one less Knight of Ren to worry about."

She trembled in place.

"I know we've been fighting them for so long, but it doesn't feel good. It feels… awful."

"We don't have to talk about it anymore," Finn said.

"Let's not. I'm ready to rejoin the others. Where are we at in our search?"

* * *

"This is the list of planets we found in the tunnels," Rose said. The small Resistance band was gathered in the main room of the _Falcon_. R2-D2 projected a series of names on the wall with images of the planets they represented.

"All of them are known systems," Connix added. "I was kind of hoping we would be lucky enough to find Exegol on here."

Rey pointed at a greenish yellow sphere on the chart.

"That one, there. What's Kef Bir?"

"Um, let's see," Connix muttered as she swiped through her database. "That's in the Endor system. A grassland moon."

Rey thought back to the vision she had. Of the golden fields of grass.

Chewie growled at the name.

"Oh yes," Threepio nodded. "Chewbacca and I visited a forest moon there during the last war. Charming species there. They mistook me for a god."

"Endor was the beginning of the end for the Empire," Poe said, ignoring the droid. "But there shouldn't be anything there but ruins anymore."

"No," Rey said softly. "That's the one."

* * *

The battle was over. Phasma surveyed the dead.

"Not much of a defense," she said dismissively.

Kylo Ren was above her, looking up at the castle from the top of a ruined wall.

"This was a former stronghold of the Empire," Ren explained. "The First Order is likely the best-trained force to ever attack this place."

"But not the first," Phasma said. She was standing in the collapsed threshold of a door, looking at a pile of dead Stormtroopers.

"What is the meaning of this? These are certainly none of my units," Phasma shook her head.

"My Knights encountered similar resistance on Pasaana. Highly trained, most likely genetically conditioned. Red armor."

"Who would have the resources to do that?"

"Someone who wants the Emperor's power for themselves, I imagine. But one thing at a time, Captain. Secure the site and return to the shuttle."

"I take it that means you'll be going on alone, sir?"

"Yes. Take the shuttle back up to the _Steadfast_ and await further instructions."

"Very well. I shall inform General Hux."

* * *

The _Falcon_ descended through a layer of clouds and down to the surface of Kef Bir. A cool breeze blew ripples through leagues-wide fields of wild grasses. From their high vantage point they could see roaming bands of shaggy, quadrapedal animals cutting lines in the prairie. Far off in the distance were jagged, grey mountains.

Poe was the first one off the ship. Chewbacca followed close behind, with an unwanted passenger in Babu Frik perched on his hairy shoulder.

"Alright, Rey," the ace pilot said. "Where to first?"

"Well, we know that the Sith Eternal is interested in this planet."

"Which is bad," Finn added.

"We should ask the locals, like we did on Pasaana," Rey said, closing her eyes.

"What locals?" Connix asked. "The only things we saw down here were Orbaks."

"Don't you feel it? Someone is coming."

After a few moments, the others could feel it too. The ground was very slightly vibrating. Then they heard the sound of hooves. A half dozen of the shaggy creatures crested the hill. Each one bore a rider with patchwork cloaks and goggles. The Orbak team surrounded the party and drew their bows.

"Who are you?" The rider at the head of the group shouted down to them. She had a head of long frizzy hair and was wearing a cape of what appeared to be an animal's hide.

"Depends on who wants to know," Rose said. They had to speak up to hear each other over the wind. "You don't look like you're with the First Order."

"Neither do you," the woman admitted, not relaxing her bowstring. "You aren't wearing red. But it's hard to trust people these days."

"We're with the Resistance," Rey faced the woman. "Perhaps you could help us. You guys are scavengers, right? I used to be one myself."

The Orbak riders visibly relaxed when they heard "Resistance."

"We are scavengers, that's right. But not by choice. Name's Jannah."

"I'm Rey."

Jannah's team dismounted and introduced themselves to the Resistance.

"Sorry about the cold welcome. Just being careful. We wanted to make sure you weren't with the Red Ones."

"Red Ones?" Connix asked. She and Threepio exchanged a look.

"Thieves. We'll tell you more back at camp. C'mon. You can sack up with us tonight."

"Rey?" Poe looked to the young Jedi. *How's your timetable?"

"Who cares?" Rey sighed. "I'm exhausted."

"We could use some food, too," Connix said. "Rations get old after a few days."

"Sounds good," Poe decided. "We'll follow you in the Falcon."

"You won't find enough flat ground to land on," Jannah said. Then she smirked.

"I have a better idea."

* * *

Rey and company each sat behind one of Jannah's riders astride an Orbak. After much protesting from C-3PO they were able to stow the droids in cargo nets on the scavenger's saddlebags. Babu nestled himself in Rose's bag.

"These 'Red Ones,' Poe asked Jannah, "They look like Stormtroopers?"

Jannah nodded. "Have you seen them too, then?"

"On Pasaana. They're bad news but they aren't with the Order. My friend Finn here used to run with them, he's never seen anything like 'em."

Jannah turned to look back at Finn and squinted hard at him.

"Finn? FN… you're FN-2187, aren't you?"

"Have we met?" Finn looked to his friends for help but was met with equally blank expressions. BB-8 tilted his head quizzically.

"You don't know me, but us Buckets still talk about you when the Chrome Domes aren't around. You're a legend."

"Just what he needs to hear," Rose muttered.

"You served?" Finn asked, bewildered.

"Company 77. We defected after the Second Battle of Inyuso Tor. Waited three months for them to pull us out while the Duro Artillery shelled us. Never came. Domes said "interests changed" and they weren't making the damn mountain a priority anymore."

"So we did what we always talked about doing. We ditched our armor, hopped a freighter off world, and eventually found ourselves here on Kef Bir."

"We made a living selling scrap for a while," one of her friends said, "but a few months back the Red Ones showed up and started making our lives miserable."

"What kind of scrap do you get out here?"m Rey asked.

"The same kind as you find on Jakku, I imagine. Imperial refuse. You'll see soon."

* * *

The lights shuddered on as Kylo Ren entered. Nobody had been in this place in a long time. Even the red Troopers were unable to disturb the castle.

Ren had told Phasma that this third party must also be searching for Sidious' location. But there was a second possibility - one that he kept to himself because it distrubed him - that they were out to _prevent him_ from finding the Emperor. He needed to figure out who they were and why that might be. But he might need to leave that to the Knights. He was too close, now.

He closed his eyes and reached out with the Force. He couldn't believe he was really here. Where Vader lived, where he spent his time away from the Empire in solitude.

His instincts lead him down the stairs, deeper into the fortress.

An old model holoprojector was built into the floor here.

Kylo Ren removed his helmet and - hands trembling - activated the device.

And suddenly, larger than life and composed of flickering blue light, was the last of the Sith Lords. Kylo Ren was staring up at the image of Darth Vader.

* * *

The clouds cleared by the time the rebels arrived at Jannah's camp. One of the suns was setting, after a fashion, behind the enormous green orb of Endor in the sky. In the foreground were the moss-soaked peaks of the mountains. They were coming upon some difficult terrain towards feet of the large outcroppings. Here the grass was shorter, and sparser. It looked younger in places.

"We saw those mountains when we were landing," Connix pointed. "They looked a lot smaller from the air."

"Those aren't mountains," a bearded scavenger shook his head. "Those are ruins. The wreck of the Death Star. The big one, from the Battle of Endor. This is the rim of the crater it left when it struck Kef Bir years ago."

The riders quickly assembled some tents and started a fire.

"We used to live a lot closer. Endor was too far and too empty for most of the gawkers back in the day to come visit the wreck. It was good pickings. Before the Red Ones came. We aren't exactly equipped to handle an army, so they muscled us out pretty quickly."

"We found a chart of planets that the Red Ones - and the group they work for - have a presence on," Finn said. "They must be looking for something here."

"May we see your chart?" Jannah asked. She motioned for another member of her camp to join her.

R2 spun his dome around and projected the map they found on Pasaana.

The three former Troopers gathered and whispered for a moment.

"Okay," she said. Now, I'm not a scientist, but I bet that if you looked at the positions of all these planets back in 4 ABY, and drew lines from all of them back to Endor, they'd be unobstructed."

"What does that mean?" Finn scratched his head.

"I get it," Rose nodded. "Those are all impact sites for more Death Star wreckage."

"Some of these are hundreds of lightyears away," Poe said. "They'd never make it all the way."

"Unless they were traveling at hyperspeed," Rose grinned.

"It's hard to wrap your head around, but both Death Stars had Hyperdrives," Connix agreed.

"There's no other way the Empire could have moved them into position around the Galaxy. The first Death Star did lasting damage to the hyperlanes - It was just too big."

"The second one was never finished," Jannah continued. "But the Hyperdrive could have been operational."

"Then all it needed was a big enough energy surge to overload the drive - like say, the one General Calrissian's team created when they blew the core - and the chain reaction accelerates the whole station out of realspace as it breaks apart," Rose finished.

"That's insane," Finn said in awe.

"But the proof is right here," Rey said, gesturing at the mountains of metal. "The impact must have eradicated all plant and animal life for miles around."

"Life bounced back though," Jannah said proudly. "The only thing left of the Empire on Kef Bir is an empty shell."

"So what do they think is in there?" The young Jedi wondered aloud. By now their dinner, the rather tasty-smelling haunch of a prairie creature, was finished cooking.

"If they're looking for something specific, they have a very interesting way of looking for it. You ask me, they just want to take the whole thing."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because they _are._ "

* * *

 _"I have awaited this day for a long time,"_ Vader thundered. The thin image of the dark lord looked down on Kylo Ren where he stood in the bowels of the castle.

"Grandfather," Kylo Ren bowed before the image.

 _"In a few hours, the Emperor's trap will spring on the Rebellion, and Skywalker will come to confront me,"_ the recording continued. The Supreme Leader's eyes darted back and forth as he returned to a standing position.

 _"My master believes that the boy will turn, and that he will slay me to take my place at his side. But the Emperor's gaze is shorter than he believes. I have foreseen it. Skywalker_ will _leave that station as my ally in the Force. Pack up all of the necessary equipment and journey to the edge of Wild Space via these coordinates and await my instructions."_

Vader's image was replaced by a rotating star chart. Kylo Ren's lips crept into a smile. His brow was damp with sweat.

_"Today belongs to fate. Do not fail."_

"I will not, Lord Vader. Thank you."

* * *

Kylo Ren climbed back up the stairs

"You know, from a certain point of view," a voice echoed behind him, "he was right."

The Supreme Leader paused to clench his fists, then continued his ascent without acknowledging Luke's presence.

"As I dragged my father's dying body away from Sidious' throne room, we were allies in the Force. He was Anakin Skywalker, and I was his son. Who could have imagined that he would be the one to turn?"

"Vader was fated to bring balance to the Force. Yet the Emperor is still here, and he isn't. His treason amounted to nothing."

"No," Luke said sternly. "Not nothing. As long as there is life in the Galaxy there will be disparity. No one person could permanently balance the Force. But winning out over Sidious' control - over Vader? That righted the scales for an entire generation. The price was high, but he lost his life a long time before the Death Star. Right here on this planet, in fact."

"From a certain point of view," his nephew mocked him.

Luke reappeared inches in front of Ben.

"Don't forget that Vader didn't have the luxury of taking his helmet on and off when he didn't want to be seen. He was in constant pain, because that is what losing yourself to the Dark does."

Kylo Ren walked through the apparition, leaving his old mentor behind.

"I am not lost. In fact, now I know exactly where to go. As for pain? You don't get to talk to me about _pain_."

Luke's face fell, and he faded back into the Force.

"Hn," Ben grunted. He punched on some instructions on his communicator and summoned his shuttle back down to the surface. Outside, squads of Troopers were patrolling the newly claimed area.

It wouldn't be long now.


	9. Kef Bir

_[A/N]: Sorry for the long delay, and the shorter chapter. Had to split this one in two, turns out. Enjoy reading!_

* * *

Night on Kef Bir was strange, and brief. The gas giant blocked most of the light from the first sun, leaving only an eerie twilight across the grassland moon. Endor itself still filled the sky, an immense green circle of light moving across the field of grey. Only a few hours later, the second sun began to crest the opposite horizon. Finn could scarcely keep track. Fortunately, JAnnah and the other scavengers had covered sleeping quarters to block out the fluctuating light. By the time they all awoke, the dense layer of clouds from the previous day had returned to cover the sky.

The scavengers were all gathered towards the side of the camp facing the mountain, several of them holding binocular scopes.

"What are you looking for?" Rey asked.

"The outsiders. Here they come now," Jannah pointed towards the mountainous ruin. A wedge shaped ship dropped through the clouds.

"The First Order!" Threepio turned on his heels and sputtered in the other direction.

"No. Have a look."

Jannah passed her binocs to Rey. There was no mistaking it. It was a Star Destroyer. But Rey had never seen one like this before - at least, not in flight.

"It's Imperial. An antique. Is that what the Red Ones travel in? Where did they find one?"

"Beats me," Jannah shook her head. "And have a look at its belly."

As it got closer, Rey could see a large cannon mounted to the bottom of the Destroyer.

"A magnetic pulse gun. Red Ones scoop up whole hunks of wreck in one go, take it off-planet."

"So they want the ruins themselves," Rose said. "Not necessarily what's in them. Is the metal of any value?"

"Not more than usual," Jannah shook her head. "There are a lot easier places to find scrap metal than out here."

"Even on Jakku the exterior plating of the Star Destroyers wasn't worth very much," Rey added.

The Destroyer descended beyond the rise of the wreckage and out of view.

"Where are they taking it all?" Connix wondered.

"Exegol," Poe snapped his fingers upon the realization.

"Jannah, can you get us close to that ship?"

"Why would you want to do that?"

"I'm pretty sure this cult we've been tracking is related to the place we've been looking for - Exegol. If we can get into their computers we can find the location!"

"Poe, I don't know if that's such a good idea," Connix frowned. "There could be thousands of Troopers there, and we almost got taken out by four the other day."

"This could be our only chance!" Poe argued.

"Hey, Jannah," Finn said. "How big are these pieces of the station the Red Ones take?"

"Hm. Around half the size of the Destroyers themselves."

"So, more than big enough to park a YT-Model freighter inside of."

"Finn, you're a genius!" Rey said.

"A genius and a legend, it's a big day for you," Rose grinned. Chewbacca snickered.

"All we need to do is hide the _Falcon_ in the wreck, and the Sith Eternal takes us straight to Exegol."

R2-D2 beeped inquisitively. Threepio nodded.

"Mistress Rey, R2 is wondering - er, how do we move the _Millennium Falcon_ into the mountains without the red Stormtroopers spotting us?"

"That's… a good question," Rey trailed off.

"Do the ships come often?" Connix asked.

"Usually once or twice a day, anymore," Jannah replied. "This one is early, so there's likely to be another one tonight."

"So then we wait for the Destroyer to leave, and catch the next one," Poe said. "Chewie, you and BB-8 head back to the _Falcon_. The rest of us will scout out the area, see how many Troopers stay behind after the Destroyer ships out. Then we call you in where it's safe, and let them do the rest."

He stroked his chin. "The only thing we'd need to do is figure out which piece of wreckage they're going to take next."

"I could dress up as a Stormtrooper again," Finn said, half jokingly.

"It might not be so complicated," Rose offered. "The cultists must have surveyors go out and prep a site for removal. We follow them, maybe take out a few to buy us some wiggle room, and sneak the ship inside before the next shipment."

Jannah laughed.

"You guys are nuts. Well, day's not getting any younger. We'll need headlamps and ropes. Pack whatever else you want to take and let's get going."

* * *

Tall, weather-stained slabs of metal crept up on either side of the rebels as they came upon the edge of the ruins. Rey had journeyed through the large support structures of Starkiller Base, but even she couldn't imagine the scale of what the Death Star must have looked like fully assembled.

The young Jedi swore she saw someone standing on a ledge far above, but the shape vanished before her eyes could register it.

"Did you live in these ruins, before the Red Ones came?" She asked Jannah.

"Not far from here. Our camp sat just along the outer wall. We had a bunch of ways in and out. And don't worry - I still remember them. We have scouts run through here every week or so to keep tabs on the outsiders. Now, you _are_ going to want to watch your heads in here. The station gets more unstable every year."

"It's funny, isn't it?" Connix said. "The _Falcon_ was in here 30 years ago blowing the place up, and now we're bringing her back."

They descended through an overgrown cavern. The Death Star was buried what looked like a hundred feet deep in the soil of Kef Bir.

"Here's our entrance. Old hangar. The ship's inside got burned up in reentry when the environmental systems failed, and crushed to pieces by the impact."

The room itself must have run sideways compared to its present orientation, with the floor currently serving as a high, decaying wall. Roots of trees and shrubs cascaded down from the "ceiling." With some difficulty they climbed around the overgrowth and beyond the hangar. Jannah paused a moment to let the Resistance take in the sight.

A crack opened by the crash revealed the true enormity of the station, with a mesh of cross-sectioned hallways and utility corridors stretching over their heads until it was lost in the haze above.

I just can't get over how they built two of these," Poe whispered. "How much do you think it cost?"

"The cost in blood was probably higher than the cost in credits," Rose added darkly.

"And to think," Finn said, "This is just the part that landed on Kef Bir."

"If you guys win the war I should definitely start a tour service here," Jannah chuckled.

"This way, please," the scavenger led them to a hallway entrance that was still right-side up. She grabbed a length of metal rod resting near the doorway and used it to pry the sliding doors open a little wider.

"The old Imp corridors are mostly intact, so your roller friend should be good to go."

She gave R2-D2 a pat on his dome, which he didn't seem to mind.

Rey blinked, and pinched the bridge of her nose as a sudden headache gripped her, then passed. She heard what sounded like distant voices, or laughter. Then the station began to rumble.

"Stay calm, everyone," Jannah murmured. "Just the space station settling."

Rey yelped and dodged backwards as a rusted chunk of the ceiling gave way, filling the tunnel between her and her friends with decades of sediment.

"Rey!" Finn and Rose shouted.

"I'm alright! But the passage is shut up tight. It looks like I'll have to find my own way around. Go on ahead, I'll find you."

"Settling, huh?" Finn muttered, taking a deep breath to regain his composure.

* * *

Kylo Ren was overseeing final preparations of his shuttle when Hux found him.

Kylo Ren was overseeing final preparations of his shuttle when Hux found him.

"I take it your excursion to Mustafar went well, sir?"

"A promising lead, Hux. I'll be rendezvousing with Ap'Lek Ren and the _Unending_ for the next leg of the search."

"Ah," Hux said. This was the first time he was being informed of the transfer.

"Supreme Leader, this vessel has more than enough fuel to take you the whole way."

"It isn't a matter of fuel, General," Ren rumbled.

"No. It's perhaps a matter of trust."

Kylo Ren turned around to face the young commander.

"We've managed to pretend that we trust each other for this long. Why now, with victory in sight, do you choose to test it?"

"I've never approved of the way you compartmentalize the inner workings of the Order through your Knights," Hux said candidly. "Least of all now for this most important mission."

"The Knights are necessary for their abilities in the Force. Exegol has enough of the Force channeling through it to bring the dead back to life. It would flay open an uninitiated mind like yours and consume you whole."

Hux gulped.

"It is to your credit, General," Kylo Ren said, circling around the redheaded man, "that you are still worth more to me alive than dead."

"You're too kind, _sir_."

"When I find the Emperor, he will assume his throne. The war will end, and the Galaxy will change. That's what you wish, is it not? Then please. Allow me to complete my mission."

"Very well, Ren," Hux sneered. "Good _luck_."

"See to it that the First Order runs in my absence," the Supreme Leader added over his shoulder.

And Kylo Ren departed, leaving Hux alone in the hangar bay. As he watched the Supreme Leader go, a shadow of hate passed over his face. The First Order ran in spite of the boy's presence, not the other way around. Hux afforded Kylo Ren a healthy amount of fear. There was precious little trust between them - as evidenced by Ren's blatant efforts to hide information from the general - but Armitage Hux had limits.

He wished to meet with the Emperor without Hux, to curry undue favor with him. To cut Hux out of the equation. That wouldn't stand. People had underestimated Hux before. None of them survived long enough to do it twice.


	10. The Ruined Station

Rey caught the edge of an overhang and vaulted herself over the top with a grunt. The Jedi of old could augment their physical abilities through the Force (the mental image of Master Skywalker leaping tens of feet in the air often amused her), but this wasn't all that different from the massive, decaying Star Destroyers she used to salvage on Jakku.

Her thoughts drifted back to the stranger on the cliff watching her and her friends. If there had been one at all. Such strange things had been happening to her since the night of her vision. She was beginning to doubt what was real and what wasn't.

"Can't be thinking that way right now," she said out loud, as if her voice would frighten away the ghosts in the tunnels.

"Need to keep moving."

She was drawn upwards by the distant sound of rushing water. Could there be a waterfall up ahead?

It didn't seem possible, but as Rey entered the next massive gap in the wreckage, she saw that it was true. Somewhere up above the rain must have collected in a great volume (Rey suspected it rained a lot on this planet), and was coursing down through the gap in the ceiling. All around her the wreck was covered in spongey moss and lush greenery. Here and there a small amphibious creature darted through the undergrowth. There was an entire little world inside this splintered section of the space station. Seeing the signs of life sprouting from amidst the cold, brutal facades of the Imperial structure heartened Rey. If these vines and frogs could manage it, so could the rest of the Galaxy.

Seeing no other way out of the chamber, Rey tied back her hair and dove into the pool. Five years ago she never thought she would see this much water, much less learn to swim in it. But she had changed in a lot of ways since Jakku. She found a tunnel in the green fluid and followed it deeper into the station.

* * *

Rose threw her weight behind a door, pushing it open.

"So, Jannah. Last night you mentioned 'Chrome Domes,' as in plural. Are there more people like Phasma in the First Order?"

Jannah laughed. "There ain't no one else in the galaxy like Captain Phasma."

"But yeah," Finn explained, "Top brass in the ranks wore chromium plated armor. Silver, gold. Maybe a green? You probably didn't meet any because they usually stayed onboard the Destroyers and conducted remotely."

"Couldn't get their shiny paint jobs dirty," Jannah said bitterly.

"At least one of them is gone now," Poe sighed. "You and Rose took care of Phasma on the _Supremacy_ way back."

"No way," Jannah spun around, accidentally blinding the others with her headlamp.

"Sorry. But no - you guys killed Phasma?"

"Well, we dropped her through the floor of a burning hangar bay," Finn said.

"Oh. So you didn't see the body."

"The whole starship was cut in half and falling apart," Rose said, disbelieving the scavenger.

"You don't know Phasma like we do," Jannah shook her head. "Anyway, we're here."

They walked out of the passage into a high cliff overlooking the old Destroyer. Babu Frik poked his head out of Rose's bag and cooed nervously.

Far below them lines of Sith Eternal Troopers marched like ants into the ship. Still more were overseeing a perimeter of flares around a section of the Death Star's hull.

"Were I a betting woman," Jannah said, pointing at the flares, "I'd say that's the surveying team for the next salvage run. You go that way, you'll find your hidey hole."

Scrabbling across the uneven surface of the station proved the most difficult leg of the journey. Fortunately, none of the Troopers ever looked up to see the strange procession above them. R2-D2 decided to stay behind, not trusting his wheels on the perilous hike. He chimed in over the comms every so often to provide C-3PO with updates on the destroyer.

When the massive ship finally did take off, it nearly blew them off the side of the cliff. A bright red beam emerged from the canon on its belly, heaving the wreck up towards it with a deafening sound. At the same time, it began to rise; pulling the chunk upwards like a slice of cake. The Rebels could make out the cross-sections of several decks, and here and there the bright red shapes of the Cult's soldiers overseeing the lift.

"How are they going to get back in the Destroyer before it leaves the atmosphere?" Connix asked.

"I don't think they care," Poe said grimly.

When the piece - not as long as the ship but at least as tall - was secured, the Destroyer fired its thrusters and surged up into the clouds. The force of the liftoff caused several pieces of station to collapse, if the number of birdlike creatures taking off in the distance was any indication.

"That's our clock running," Jannah recaptured their attention. "We should get where we're getting before the next one arrives."

At length, they came upon a sizable outcropping in the hull. Standing guard in front of it was a lone Sith Trooper.

"That looks big enough to fit the _Falcon_ in, wouldn't you say?" Poe asked.

"Yeah," but I feel like that guy wouldn't like us parking here," Rose whispered.

Jannah shook her head.

"Leave that to me."

She stuck her thumb in her mouth to wet it, then held it up to the wind. After a moment, she nocked an arrow from her back quiver into her bow, and let it fly. It struck a soft point in the Trooper's gear, causing him to fall lifeless to the ground.

"You wear that stuff long enough, you know where it hurts most to get shot," she muttered. "He ain't dead - not at this range - but he ain't calling his friends either."

"That's good, actually," Poe said. Because I've been meaning to talk to one of these guys."

A few minutes later, the Resistance and their guide were standing over the Trooper.

"Now let's see what we're working with," Poe said. He pulled off the red helmet, and everyone reacted with shock and revulsion.

There was no face underneath the mask. Not in any logical sense of the word. It resembled a human thumb; featureless save for many hundred tiny and thin wrinkles spiraling out from the center, and coated in a fine oily sheen.

"What is it?" Connix said, her hands covering her mouth aghast.

"This physiology does not appear consistent with any species in my databanks, Threepio reported.

"Were I to hazard a guess, I'd say this being was _grown_ , rather than born through traditional means."

"Cloning?" Poe asked the droid."

"It's possible. I couldn't say for sure."

"But even in the Clone Wars clones looked like, you know, people." Finn said gravely. "This is something else."

"Let's move him out of line of sight," Rose said.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

* * *

Rey shivered, wringing her jacket out on the edge of the flooded passageway. She was at a doorway to a turbolift shaft, if she wasn't mistaken. Once she had recovered from the chilly swim, she climbed up the shaft to the next floor, and wedged the door open with her staff. She was surprised to see sunlight stream in.

This room had aged rather poorly. The ceiling was caved in, and most of the support frame had rotted away. This must have been against the exterior of the ship. A rusted and lopsided staircase, its underside clogged by a dense thicket of bushes, lead down to where Rey stood. It seemed like the entire room was pitched upward at an angle, affording Rey a powerful view of a once stately looking circular window, its frame now hanging in a void open to the sky above.

Sitting at the apex of the room was a molding chair with high armrests and a deep set back. When Rey saw it, she was immediately drawn towards it. She could focus only on the sound of her own breathing as she climbed up to the peculiar chair.

She felt this way before, in a closet beneath Maz Kanata's bar on Takodana. The call of the Force, and an inescapable desire to reach out and touch...

As her fingers neared its decaying seat, the wind died off, and the mist in the air disappeared. Even the insects chirping in the undergrowth all paused, throwing the room into a sudden, ravenous silence.

Like that day in the basement of Maz's castle, Rey was struck by a jolt of energy as she made contact with the chair. The clouds of Kef Bir lurched upwards, inducing a nauseating sensation of motion as the world around the ruined chamber was wreathed in starless night. The chair began to swivel on its base, as the same horrible, corpselike laughter that Rey heard several nights ago began to play across the still air.

When the chair finished revolving, there was a robes figure sitting in it. They looked up at Rey and sneered with a mouth full of sharp teeth. The young Jedi gasped. It's face was Rey's own. Dark, and distorted, but unmistakable. This other Rey raised her arm and pushed her twin back towards the foot of the stairs. She stood up and pulled a lightsaber from her robes, igniting a red blade, then another, then unfolding the weapon with the flick of her wrist to create a long saber-staff.

Rey vaulted to her feet and drew her own saber. They clashed again and again in the darkened throne room.

 _"Submit!"_ The dark Rey hissed, and electricity arced from her fingers, lancing through the destroyed room. Rey screamed as it briefly courses through her body.

_"Fall!"_

Reaching hold of her foe with the Force, Rey tried to grapple the weapon from her doppelganger's hands. The whole station groaned as the two Reys entered an invisible struggle with each other, until finally the whole room fell, the floor's steep angle partially righting itself with a thunderous crack.

Rey lost her footing, then her grip on her saber, and fell backwards through a gap in the stairs. When she crawled out of the bushes, the grey sunlight had returned to the room, and her twin was gone. She grabbed onto the slats of the stairs and started sobbing.

"Master Skywalker, I can't do it!"

A blue spectral hand fell on her shoulder.

"Talk to me, Rey," Luke said softly. "What has shaken your resolve?"

"All these things are happening to me and it scares me. I feel like I'm losing control of myself! Luke, lightning came out of my hands. How am I supposed to fight the greatest evil in the universe if I can't balance the Force within me?"

"Do you know where we're standing right now?" Luke asked. He waved his hand across the area under the stairs.

"This is where I faced off against Vader. This room - the Emperor's throne room - was the place where I faced my destiny as a Jedi. And I almost couldn't do it. The threat my father posed to my sister, all of my friends? I lost control. I felt the Dark Side surge through me, guide my actions."

"How did you find your way back?"

"There is no 'back,' because there is no 'here.' The Force ebbs and flows, and the Jedi is like a ship on its sea. The struggle between light and dark is the burden of all who walk this path. Ben Solo faces this burden even now. On that day I was able to reject the Dark Side by feeling empathy for my enemy. You will find your own way."

His face fell.

"But you will have to find it on your own. The path ahead of you is clouded by the Dark Side. Even in this room it hangs so thick that I can barely see you. I'm afraid I can't follow you to Palpatine."

"If I were stronger, you would still be alive! And I wouldn't be the last Jedi…"

"You can't think that way, Rey," said Luke with a stern frown. He held out his hand, and Rey's lightsaber floated out of the shrubs and into his hand.

"Every day I was on that island, a part of me wanted to leave. To go out there and be the Jedi people like you wanted me to be. I thought that resisting that urge was strength, but I was wrong. There are people that care about you, and about this fight. They may not be Jedi, but that won't stop them."

"I'm not alone in this," Rey whispered. Rose had told her so just the other day.

"Master Skywalker, I-"

But when she looked up, he was gone.

Rey emerged from the gloom of the wreck's interior with a renewed vigor. People were counting on her, and she couldn't let them down.

Above her, the cloud cover had increased considerably, and the sky grumbled with the promise of an imminent storm...

* * *

"Come on, Threepio!" Rose called back.

"Do wait up, Mistress Rose!" The golden droid waved his arms frantically.

Rose and the protocol droid were at the rear of the group as Jannah and Poe led them deeper into the fissure.

"It's quiet in here," Jannah muttered. "I don't want to sound paranoid, but it doesn't seem like it should be this quiet."

"I think we're okay right now," Finn said. "But I don't know how we hide the ship when this place is swarming with Sith Troopers."

Connix thought about it for a moment.

"Swarm is a good word, Finn. The way they move, and the way they see, it's more like an insect hive than an army."

"It's true, they're not very attentive when it comes to their surroundings. A side effect of the 'no eyes' thing, I guess."

"Maybe we can use that to our advantage," Poe said.

"What do you want to do," Finn wrinkled his nose, "stick the Falcon on the ceiling and hope nobody looks up?"

"If they're a hive, all we need to do is convince them that they already have drones in this part of the wreck."

"I am _not_ putting that dead thing's armor on," Finn scoffed.

"You shouldn't have to," Poe shook his head. "They ought to have some sort of transponder they use to coordinate their positions."

"Ooh, and then you can trick them into thinking their man is still alive." said an excited Jannah.

"We'll… probably need more than one."

"Let's take things one step at a time."

Behind them, Rose and C-3PO continued their squabble.

"I was not programmed for such urgency. Why, there's simply no way a droid of my model could-"

"We really need to get you a repulsor pack or something," the mechanic grinned. "My grandmother moved faster than you d-"

She turned around to see not C-3PO shuffling behind her, but the shrouded form of Trudgen Ren.

"Hello, my dear," Trudgen said softly.

A hand cupped her mouth from behind her before she could scream.

"No, no," Vicrul rasped in her ear. "Don't go spoiling the surprise."

The surprise was to come sooner than expected, however. BB-8 happened to turn around and saw Rose surrounded by Trudgen, Vicrul, and Ap'Lek Ren, who now held the deactivated body of C-3PO slung over his shoulder. The astromech beeped, sounding the alarm. Poe and the others ran over.

"Rose?"

The corridor was filled with smoke that obscured their vision. Finn sprinted through it, shouting for his friend.

"Rose!"

* * *

Far away from Kef Bir, Lando Calrissian and a team of Resistance foot soldiers emerged into the light. The acrid, dust choked air offered little relief from the stifling crypts below, but Lando took what he could get.

"This place gives me the creeps!" Lando called out to Bek, whose team was waiting for him outside. "Nothing but old bones and echoes."

 _"Just as well!"_ An old voice shouted from his pocket. _"This place hasn't been inhabited since I was a girl. You'd be in big trouble if you encountered anything stirring in those crypts."_

Lando winced and pulled a disc from his pocket. The image of Maz Kanata flickered to life on its surface.

"Ah, Maz. All that rock we were under must have interfered with my communicator."

_"Lucky you."_

Lando and company were on the old Sith homeworld of Moraband, delving into the tombs of the Dark Lords that had been built here long ago. The old Sith had apparently experimented with finding eternal life; Bek thought that perhaps one of these graves had a clue as to how Palpatine was able to escape his fate. Lando had just finished another expedition into the Tomb of Darth Bane, a giant split open pyramid that dominated the landscape of the valley.

"You're the lucky one, Maz. This is no place for a lady."

 _"I had my place,"_ the alien sighed. _"A nice one. The First Order blew it up."_

"Well, maybe after this all blows over you and I can go into business together."

_"I know what kind of business you get up to, Lando Calrissian, and I want no part of it! Look at me! I've already allowed Han to drag me into enough of his messes. I'm much too old to get dragged into one of yours."_

"Please, Maz, I'm a legitimate businessman," Lando said in mock hurt. "I can promise you, I wouldn't disappoint."

 _"Be careful not to gamble something you wouldn't be able to pay up on,"_ Maz said mischievously.

Nien Nub said something in his complex linguistic pattern. Bek nodded.

"I agree. I don't believe they're talking about gas mining anymore." Though he said it quiet enough that Maz wouldn't hear him.

"One thing's for sure," Lando frowned. "I wish Han were here with us. This was always his forte more than mine."

 _"General Calrissian,"_ a transmission came from their ship. _"Something is coming out of lightspeed nearby. It's going right over top of you."_

Lando and Bek looked up to see first one, then three more Star Destroyers passing over the valley…

* * *

Rey saw the _Millennium Falcon_ cruising low over the crooked frame of the station. It landed on the other side of a rise she was climbing. Before too long she was on her way down into the cave where her friends were waiting. None of them looked very happy, though.

"What's wrong?"

Poe held up a dagger, the same dagger she had taken from Trudgen Ren on Kijimi. Tied around the hilt was the teardrop shaped pendant Rose wore around her neck. It then dawned on Rey that the Resistance technician wasn't with them.

"No," Rey shook her head, the blood rushing around her skull. "It can't be true."

"She's gone," Poe choked on the word. "They took her."

The station rumbled as Rey collapsed, and beyond the stillness of the Death Star the Resistance could hear the drumming of rain.


	11. Exegol

A pale sun shining through a vast haze of Stardust. An endless dark ocean stretching beneath. It's little wonder, Cardo Ren thought, that nobody ever found this place. By chance the planet was emerging into a pocket of clear space on the edge of the black nebula when the Knights of Ren found it.

He stood on the bridge of the Dreadnought _Obedience_ , in the atmosphere above the Sith stronghold. Outside lightning raged inside the nebula. Before too long the planet would be engulfed once again. He hoped that the master's mission below was going to be resolved quickly.

That was when a Star Destroyer dropped out of Hyperspace. Not one of the First Order's, this one was old. Early Imperial, by the size and shape of the Conning Tower. It moved down towards the planet in a slow, buoyant arc. It made no reactionary maneuvers to the fleet's presence.

Cardo motioned for the communications officer to hail the Destroyer.

"Unknown vessel, this is Cardo Ren of the Knights of Ren. This planet is under the surveillance of the First Order. Identify yourself and state your purpose for coming here."

The Destroyer sailed past, and there wasn't so much as a crackle of a microphone on the other end. In fact, it didn't look like there were any lights on at all inside the vast spacecraft.

"Sir," an officer pointed. "Look at the bottom of their hull."

A large piece of grey scrap metal, nearly as long as the vessel itself, was being held against the ship by a series of magnetic clamps. The ship continued lazily descending past the _Obedience_ and down into the atmosphere of Exegol below.

"Okay," Ushar's voice came over the comlink. "Everyone else saw that, right?"

"Yeah," Cardo responded. "Are we going to tell Master Ren about this?"

"Hasn't responded in nearly an hour. He must be out of range."

* * *

Exegol was an ocean planet. Kylo Ren was soaked through with spray from all sides. An entire sphere of water writhing around a stone core, with not so much as an island afloat in it.

Not a natural one, anyway.

He landed his shuttle on a huge mass of uneven metal sticking from the ocean. Ap'Lek's team had told him of their mission to the Death Star wreck. It didn't take an expert to realize that this was more of the same. If there was a Sith Temple here, it must be under the surface.

Scrambling over the submerged wreck, he had at length come upon a door that appeared to lead down into the bowels of the old station. Kylo Ren approached, but his hand stopped inches from the door. The sudden presence of someone raked across his mind.

He looked up at the mist-wrapped shape of the Star Destroyer coursing overhead.

"Rey."

* * *

Rey stood at the helm of the Falcon as it emerged from the water.

"Ben," she whispered.

The trip had been tense. Poe and Finn found the bodies of several more Sith Troopers after Rose was taken, evidently left by the Knights prior to the ambush. Rey had said little. After a while of holding their breath waiting to be discovered, the Sith Eternal came to transport their piece of wreckage. Not being able to see the planet upon approach, the Resistance was thus caught off guard as the chamber began to fill with seawater.

Poe finished loading up his pack and stood on the dejarik table in the room below.

"Okay. So maybe I wasn't expecting the water landing. Connix, take Jannah and R2 down to the engine room and make sure there aren't any fish in the Hyperdrive."

Chewbacca shooed Poe off of the table while Connix wrung out a rag.

"More bad news. Gonna need to run diagnostics on the communication array before we can tell the Resistance where we are."

"Great. Fix that. Finn, Chewie, Rey, you're with me. We're going to find where the Emperor is hiding."

R2 beeped sullenly.

"What about Rose, and Threepio?" Connix asked.

"I'm sure that Rose… if she's…."

"No," Rey said numbly. "They haven't killed her, Finn. They can hurt me more if I know she's still alive."

"Then the Knights of Ren still have her," Finn replied.

"She's probably in one of those First Order over our heads, Finn said, pointing at the grey sky. "We just need to find which one."

"I'll let you know when I find out," Rey said, starting to leave.

"Rey? Rey, what are you going to do?" Poe called out to her.

"What I should have done from the start of all this."

She jumped down the ledge and disappeared.

* * *

There was a magnetic pull, leading the two Force-bound warriors to each other. She climbed over a ledge to find a narrow bridge of debris plunging into the ocean. He emerged from a plume of seaspray, his weapon already ignited.

"You made it," Ben said flatly, his voice cutting through the roar of the water.

"Rose," Rey ignored him. "What have you done with her?"

He pulled off his helmet and shook loose his soaked hair.

"Perhaps I'm using your friend as insurance."

"You've never needed an excuse not to fight me before."

"That was before I saw what you did to Kuruk Ren."

Rey scowled at her foe. Ben flipped his saber around so that it faced away from the girl.

"I can't feel the Dark Side here. Can you? It's almost disappointing. The fabled holy ground of the Sith. But look at all this. The cult, the ruins. There's something here alright."

"And it should stay here," Rey shouted. "The Galaxy has suffered enough at his hand."

"It won't be your decision to make."

Kylo Ren vaulted toward her with augmented speed, and Rey ignited her saber moments before disaster.

* * *

"Stop."

Poe, Finn, and Chewie had been walking for a little while. But now the pilot heard something.

He crouched down and looked through a gap in the ruins. Small flashes of light could be seen far below.

"Sounds like… welding?"

"They're fusing the pieces of wreckage together," Finn realized.

"They're building something."

Chewbacca roared and pointed at the sky. One, then two more, then another five Star Destroyers dropped through the atmosphere. None of them had wreckage with them.

"Something is about to go down," Poe murmured.

"Each of those ships probably has a thousand Troopers," Finn said. "This might not be a fight we can win, even with the Resistance."

"Just gotta hold on a little longer," Poe replied, putting his hand on Finn's shoulder. Then he looked into the distance.

"Man, where is Rey?"

* * *

"Alright guys," Connix wiped her brow. "I think this is it."

The terminal whirred and began to fill with lighted readouts.

"This hunk of junk is a survivor, alright," Jannah shook her head in disbelief.

"Now let's hope our transmission gets through that mess up there and back to the Resistance, or we won't be able to say the same for ourselves," Connix added.

* * *

The battle had led across the wreckage, the two Force users leaping across trenches and gaps. The ocean roiled and bellowed around them, and the grey sky grew ever darker. Rey was holding her own, but her patch job on the blue lightsaber was again becoming spotty. Through all of this, Ben watched her intently, remaining silent. It made Rey furious. Was he tooling with her? Testing her?"

Rey shook her head, and let Luke's old blade fall from her hand. As she had in Babu Frik's shop, she reached for the _other_ saber in her pack.

"I need you to work with me."

The red blade roared to life in her hand. And then things took a turn.

Rey had fought Kylo Ren several times now. But none of their confrontations had ever been like this. She felt like there were more hands on her weapon than just her two, more eyes than just her own. A power like a drug. She swung with a form not her own, full of rage. Evidently the old crystal inside had listened to her.

Kylo Ren's pupils narrowed. He could read her patterns better. He was gaining the upper hand!

He parried away her red saber with his own as they clashed, traveling further up the rim of the wreck. Using her own momentum against her, he sidestepped past her and then sliced into the back of her leg. Rey yelped and fell, bringing the battle to an end.

Kylo Ren shut off his saber and retrieved his fractured helmet.

"I could kill you. But then you would not see what happens next. I need someone to bear witness. Someone who will understand. The Galaxy will remember this day for the rest of history."

Rey's eyes widened. How could she have been so blind?

"Ben. Ben, come back. You don't know what you're doing!"

But he was gone. That was the last thing she saw. She clutched the saber to her chest and sobbed, finally succumbing to exhaustion.

* * *

Phasma pulled up a holomap of fleet movements.

"The five Destroyers and Dreadnaught that Leader Ren appointed the Knights to are in orbit over an uncharted planet in the Unknown Regions."

Hux gave a small, impatient twitch as he glanced over the map.

"Exegol, then. What do you suppose he is doing there?"

"Not my business to ask, General "

Hux looked at the blinking triangles again.

"Perhaps we should _make_ it our business, Captain."

* * *

"Finn! Chewie! Poe!"

The trio turned with a start as Rey bolted towards them.

"I need… your help," the young Jedi tried to catch her breath.

"Are you sure?" Poe said incredulously. "You seemed pretty angry before."

"I'm sorry. He really knows how to push my buttons. But none of that matters right now."

Poe frowned at the concern in her voice. "What's going on?"

"Ren is going after Sidious. He's not trying to join with him. He's trying to kill him."


	12. The Descent

Kylo Ren thrust his saber further into the door, watching the metal turn red, then orange, then white with heat. He wrenched the blade out, leaving a large hole. With a wave of his hand, the door blew open.

Down and down the passageway went, far below the surface of the water above. He had some trouble believing that a chunk of this size could have survived the destruction of the space station to make it out here. Though he was far from an expert in Hyperphysics.

 _"It's not too late to turn back, Ben,"_ Luke's voice came from behind him. The image of his old master was fuzzy, barely visible in the dark corridor. His words sounded thin.

"You think I will fail."

_"You don't know what he's capable of. I do."_

"I have to do this. No one else is strong enough."

 _"But you don't have to do it alone!"_ Luke pleaded.

"I offered her my hand before. She refused it. And so this destiny will be my own."

* * *

Rose Tico lurched awake with a cough. Both of her arms were shackled to a wall.

"There we are," a nearby voice said. Ushar Ren capped his vial of smelling salts and returned it to his robes.

"I was starting to think you would never wake up."

For the last several hours (or was it days? She kept passing out so it was hard to tell) Rose had been chained up in this cell, "chatting" with the Knights' interrogation specialist.

"You should have just let me nap. I still don't have anything to tell you. Unless you want to hear more about fuel ducts, or proton filters. Or I can tell you about the time my sister and I-"

"I _should_ just kill you," Ushar raised a finger.

"This line of questioning won't get the First Order anywhere, it's inefficient. You're a fighter, and fighters deserve a quick, clean kill. But this is all ceremony, anyway. Ap'Lek and Kylo Ren believe that taking one of the girl's friends off the board will destabilize her, throw her off. If you were to give up your secret base it would just be a nice bonus.

"Plus," Rose could hear the smile on his face even though she couldn't see it, "you're frankly a lot of fun."

"Fun. So torturing innocent people is fun, now?"

"Innocent? Girlie, this is war. And you're a soldier. You haven't been innocent in a long time. And this _is_ fun, for me. I'd much rather be down here than tromping around on the command bridge like one of Hux's manicured little yes-men."

"Then why fight for the First Order?"

"Ha! And I thought I was supposed to ask the questions in these things. The Knights are loyal to Kylo Ren, and Kylo Ren commands the Order. Plus, wars are good for people like me. Killers. Sadists. General purveyors of violence. You understand."

"No, I don't understand. I'm kind of glad I don't," Rose sneered.

"We just haven't gotten to know each other yet," Ushar chuckled. Then a buzzer sounded, signaling that someone was outside.

"But we have plenty of time. I'll be back shortly."

He stood up abruptly and the door opened with a whisper. After it shut, he immediately began railing into the person on the other side.

"I thought I left rather clear instructions about interrupting me while I'm with a prisoner, Captain Pryde," the Knights' voice could be heard through the thick wall.

"Or more accurately, instructions about _not_ interrupting me."

"Your instructions were indeed clear, Knight Ushar. But we have… a development on the bridge."

The voices grew faint as they headed out of the cell block. After the second heavy door slammed shut, Rose's bag began to rustle. Babu Frik poked his head out to make sure the coast was clear, and then scurried across the floor.

"Babu?" Rose whispered hoarsely.

The small droidsmith gave a bright little burst of chatter and smiled, then got to work on her chains.

* * *

The sound of proximity alarms shook Ap'Lek Ren out of his concentration. A fleet of First Order Destroyers came out of Hyperspace nearly on top of the _Unending_.

He did a quick count in his head. Yes, six - exactly one more ship than the Knights'. A classic Hux tactic. A silence fell over the bridge, as though they had been caught doing something illicit.

"Call from the _Steadfast_ , sir," an officer stammered.

Ap'Lek stood for a moment. Then he turned to the officer.

"Well? Take it! Let's get this over with."

A moment later a sour-faced image of the First Order commander appeared in front of him.

"General Hux," the knight nodded.

_"Knight Ap'Lek. It seems congratulations are in order. The search for Exegol proved not to be too arduous after all."_

On his own Destroyer the young general was not on the bridge, but boarding a shuttle with a small cadre of Stormtroopers.

_"...Yes. Leader Ren is currently onsite performing a thorough search."_

"I thought as much, which is why I am coming down to assist."

_"I'm sure he was planning on debriefing you shortly."_

"Yes, I agree," Hux said, killing the feed.

"The debriefing will certainly be short."

* * *

"Whenever you're ready, Chewie."

Chewbacca growled an affirmative to Rey and pressed a button on his detonator. A series of explosions blew a neat hole into the imposing grey facade of the station.

"Are we really doing this?" Finn asked.

"Sidious is down there, that's the mission."

"That's not what he means, Rey," Poe jogged up after her. The girl turned back towards her companions.

"Are we really going in to help _him?_ "

"It feels like, whoever wins, we get something out of it," Finn said.

"This isn't like any battle we've ever fought. Darth Sidious is… he's worse than anything Kylo Ren could ever throw at us. And look, I don't like it either. When I left to find him, I was so angry, I… well, anyway, I'm thinking a lot more clearly now. And I know he still has a place in all this. His story can't end here."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Finn asked with a tone like he genuinely wanted another reason to wait.

"My droid," replied Poe.

They both looked at him.

"Sorry?"

"The deeper we go, the spottier a normal connection to the _Falcon_ would be."

BB-8 rolled across the wreck and made a beep of encouragement. He had several yards of cable trailing behind him, hanging from his head.

"So he's going to be our middle man."

He knelt down to the little astromech.

"We're counting on you, buddy."

BB-8 deployed his pilot light and gave his owner a thumbs-up.

_"Poe, do you read me?"_

"So far so good, Connix," the general smiled. It worked!

Connix was outside of the _Falcon_ at a makeshift console, anxiously watching the sky.

"What the hell is going on? We've got Sith Eternal ships making planetfall left and right, and now there's a new fleet of First Order ships in orbit."

 _"Something's going to go down soon, and we're right in the middle of it,"_ Poe said. _"Call the Resistance, and tell them to scrub the cavalry. Send in Black Squadron for exfil, and that's it."_

"That's not all," Jannah had now joined Connix outside.

"Exegol is almost done transiting this part of open space. It's heading back into the nebula. We're already losing light out here, in the next hour we could totally lose visibility."

 _"Then we have an hour!"_ Poe said, his demeanor heating up, _"The only direction is forward! Forward, into this hole, down to the lair of the ancient evil magic boogeyman from every story we ever heard as kids... General Dameron out."_

He pinched the brow of his nose and started for the hole. Then he turned to his friends.

"Well? Let's go save the guy who keeps trying to kill us."

* * *

C-3PO awoke to find Rose and Babu standing over him.

"Oh my," he lamented. "Have we been captured?"

Rose helped the droid up.

"Yeah. But you're just in time for the escape."

"You have a plan, Mistress Rose?"

She nodded.

"Okay. So we probably don't have much time until the Ren comes back. We need a way off this ship before he realizes we're gone."

She rooted through her pack. Everything looked untouched except - damn! - her blaster was gone. That would make things trickier.

"These ships often have many smaller vessels stored in the hangars," the droid offered.

"My thoughts exactly."

They moved as quickly and quietly out of the cell block as they could. There were surprisingly few Stormtroopers around. Rose briefly wondered what kind of "situation" had drawn Ushar away. Maybe the Resistance had found them? But she didn't even know where she was. How could Finn and the others?

Something about the corridors in the ship didn't feel right. She has been aboard her fair share of Destroyers by now, and unless the Knights had done extensive remodeling this didn't seem standard issue. When they reached a door that didn't automatically open, she found out why.

Rose popped the front off of the door's control panel and moved a few wires aside before kicking the wall angrily.

"Argh!"

Babu scurried out of her way.

"Are you alright, Mistress Rose?"

"This isn't a First Order Destroyer. It's Imperial - an _Executor_ -Class."

In fact, Ushar Ren's command ship _Intimidator_ was the last _Executor_ -Class to be commissioned before the Empire formally dissolved. It was never finished, but the First Order took the frontmost portion of the ship, about five thousand meters all told, and finished it with retrofitted parts from their own modern destroyers. The result was a fast, lightly manned destroyer that served almost more as a prison than a battleship. But what was most important to Rose at this moment was the decades-old chambers in the main hull she and her compatriots had been traveling through.

"This door uses Late Empire programming, the Rebels never cracked it during the old war. I don't know how to open it."

Babu pawed at one of Rose's pockets, where the engineer had been keeping a few of the tiny droidsmith's belongings.

"You've got an idea?"

She produced a leather pouch from the pocket and lowered it down to Babu. He excitedly removed a clump of circuit boards and wires from the pouch.

"These are some old-school droid components," Rose mused. "This is what you've been making me carry around? Where'd you even get all this junk, Babu?"

Babu clenched the sides of his face and grumbled, then rooted through the pile until he found a teal and gold chip, which he presented to Rose proudly.

"It's a personality matrix," she turned the rectangle of circuits over in her hands. "What are we supposed to do with it?"

Babu made a string of wailing sounds.

"Imperial programming languages? Code like for Star Destroyers, for instance?"

"Oh goodness!" Threepio tittered. "We can use it to interface with the ship and get out of this awful place!"

"Not that simple," Rose shook her head. "You can't just plug a personality component into a ship. You have to put it in a droid and then ask them to talk to the ship."

Babu made a few more sounds, and then both he and Rose turned to look at Threepio.

"I'm quite certain my banks would accept such a matrix. But that would entail a… full memory overwrite," he said quietly.

"There must be another way. A Mouse Droid somewhere we can use instead."

"Perhaps. But the longer we stay, the greater risk of being discovered."

"I think it's worth a go," Threepio said with a measure of conviction. He leaned forward so that Babu Frik could begin undoing the latches on his head casing.

"You're a braver droid than I would have pegged you for, C-3PO," Rose said somberly.

"I know. I'm quite surprised at myself. When you see R2-D2, tell him-"

The light in Threepio's eyes went out with a click, and Babu made a noise that sounded an awful lot like "Uh oh" to Rose.

The droidsmith held up a finger, then slowly pulled a C-3PO's own matrix out of his head. The action required both hands, given the scale of the droid compared to Babu.

Rose patrolled the immediate area while Babu worked. Where was everyone?

After a while of struggling, and what sounded like alien swearing, Babu slotted the teal drive into C-3PO's head and sealed him back up.

The protocol droid's eyes flashed red, and he sat up.

"Oh, Hello. My name is - wait, what is my name? I don't recall-"

He still sounded like Threepio, the way many protocol droids did. But he didn't _sound_ like the neurotic droid Rose had come to know over the years.

C-3PO looked at the tiny alien on his shoulder.

"Babu Frik, you little devil. I may not remember much but I remember you. You tried to reprogram me, didn't you? Thought you could erase my memory?"

Babu chattered indignantly at the droid.

"Hm. You did erase most of my memory, I'm afraid you have me there."

"Hey guys," Rose waved at the two of them. "Can we focus? What do I call you, droid?"

"My apologies, Miss...?"

"Rose."

"Charmed, I'm sure. As I can't recall my previous name, perhaps this unit's previous moniker will suffice."

"Great. You're C-3PO. Kind of…"

"Excellent. What can I assist you with today? Etiquette? Translation? A light bit of torture?"

"Torture? What kind of droid did this matrix come from?"

"I was designed as a protocol droid, ma'am. A very… specialized protocol droid."

"Well, all I need from you right now is to open his door. And maybe a few more if we run into them. I very explicitly want you not to do any torturing or killing unless I ask you too."

Threepio looked at the control panel.

"Seems simple enough. Shall we begin?"

* * *

Now he entered a great room, completely and stiflingly devoid of light. There were no signs of even the tufts of moss or small creatures that inhabited the upper parts of the wreck. Ben walked until he could no longer make out the floor beneath him from the air around him.

Through another passage into the room, Hux and a complement of Storm Troopers entered the chamber.

"Something is wrong," Hux muttered as they crossed the threshold. The air was as still as a tomb, but charged in a way that made his back teeth ache.

Further into the room the red light of Kylo Ren's lightsaber ignited. Its crackling hum echoed across what was surely a huge space. The red light illuminated the ground a few feet in every direction from the Supreme Leader, before the darkness swallowed it hungrily.

Behind Hux, the Storm Troopers shifted uncomfortably in place. Hux wanted to shout across the room at the Supreme Leader, but something about hugeness and blackness of the room gave him pause. He decided to avoid alerting Ren.

Then, without warning, the room filled with harsh indigo light. With a cacophony of terrible wails a crystalline structure had flashed to life. Lightning arced across the walls of a truly massive half domed chamber. Then the glow dimmed significantly.

"Ah," a voice rasped from everywhere in the room at once.

"At last, he comes before me."


	13. The Emperor

Rey and her friends raced down the dark, empty halls. Where were all the Sith Troopers? Just how big was this place?

The facility was a maze. Finn lost count of how many passageways - preexisting or custom built into the metal shell - the four of them passed. Only a madman could make sense of the layout. But Rey surged on ahead of them, guided by an unmistakable darkness that only she could sense.

Every once in a while the station rumbled, not as though it was settling, like the ruins on Kef Bir. It was as though the structure was _moving_...

* * *

Ben Solo stood stock still as he looked up. A massive dais of indigo crystal spanned the room, and on top of it was the dark figure of a man. He was dressed all in robes, which were held aloft by a wispy aura surrounding his body. A pair of brightly shining eyes peered down at Ben from sunken eye sockets. It was the deformed, gaunt face of Sheev Palpatine, and when he spoke, his voice - old and twisted as it was - boomed across the chamber with a powerful echo.

"Tell me, boy. What has moved you to travel this far, to seek out the lair of this old phantom?"

Ben knelt before the shadowy form above him.

"An audience with Darth Sidious, the strongest and most terrible of the Sith Lords. I have studied under the great Master Snoke in the ways of the Dark Side, but he was no Sith."

"Indeed…" Palpatine hissed. "And now he is nothing at all. Snoke is dead, cut down by the lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker."

The boy gulped. The strength of the Dark Side he had boasted to Rey about not being able to feel on the surface now held him to the ground with an impossible gravity.

"Snoke was… an obstacle. A simple apprentice could not survive the journey - to follow your trail and stand before you. So he had to be destroyed."

Hux's lip trembled with rage. He had always suspected, but he never had proof. Surely even Kylo Ren wouldn't be so craven.

Sidious cackled, a sound of nightmares. The crystal dais flashed in time with his mirth.

"Such is the way of the Dark. The disciple always wishes to destroy his master,"

The specter grinned.

"Just as he now means to kill me."

Kylo Ren froze.

"Did you think that mask would conceal your intentions from me, boy? I, who even in death command powers you could never know? You are Ben Solo, the renegade pupil of Luke Skywalker. The boy whose ambition lead him down a path of blood, from the previous leader of the Knights of Ren, to your father, to Snoke, and finally to me."

"Your Empire is gone. I am the Supreme Leader now. The past must be left in the past!"

The boy was nearly trembling in the thrall of the Emperor's gaze. He shouldn't be admitting his intentions so easily, but the truth was dredged up within him like a sickness.

"The past - _your_ past - frightens you. You fear the past coming back to haunt you. And you are right! I'm afraid, young Solo, that you will soon follow in Snoke's footsteps - as the Supreme Leader of nothing!"

Ren's body was forcibly spun around so that he could see Hux and the Troopers standing in the doorway. Hux's eyes met his with a mix of fear and revulsion, before he bolted back up the tunnel. Kylo reached out his arm.

"Move, move!" The Stormroopers called to one another. Then the whole party began to choke.

The first Trooper was pulled back into the darkness far enough that his comrades could no longer hear his screams. The second fell to his knees before - with a terrible crunch inside his armor - he flopped limply to the ground. The third one was nearly up the stairs and into the next corridor. Hux watched as his body was slammed against the wall, then the ceiling, then the floor, again and again until he stopped making sounds. The sound of the Emperor's grave laughter flooded the general's mind.

The final soldier managed to crawl over to the antiquated door console and slam his fist down. Hux watched the hatch shut before their renegade leader could finish the pair of them off.

He struggled to recapture his breath as he jammed the buttons on his radio.

"This is Hux to all points. Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren have betrayed the First Order. I repeat, Kylo Ren is hereby relieved of his command of your forces. Fire on the Knights' vessels _at once!_ They are enemies to the Order."

His message sent, he fell to the ground. Despite the circumstances, a wicked grin crept across his face.

"We have to get you topside, sir," the surviving Stormtrooper stood over him.

Hux could only wheeze out a laugh.

* * *

"You are too late, Kylo Ren. All your strength, all your gifts, have at last failed."

The first bolt of lightning struck Ben squarely in the head, splintering his helmet into dust. His ears rang and his vision went fuzzy as he fell to the ground.

Sidious leapt down from the dais and blasted Ben with another bolt.

"You are nothing. And you come from nothing. A pretender to the legacy of Skywalkers. A legacy of sand and servitude before _I_ created Darth Vader. _I_ am the legacy of the Skywalkers."

The boy staggered to his feet and ignited his saber.

"Darth Vader ended you. Just like I ended Snoke. When I kill you, the Skywalker legacy won't matter anymore."

He thrust at the Sith Lord, who jumped back and out of his reach. His attempt was rewarded with another shock to the system.

"But you cannot kill that which is already dead," Palpatine sneered. The aura expanded outward from his body, shrouding him from Ben's view.

Ben fought through the pain and swiped at the Emperor, but he wasn't there. The old man instead appeared behind him and sent another wave of lightning through his back. Then another. And another. And another. When the fog cleared, the fabric of his cape was smoking.

"Still you fight," Sidious' voice creaked. "But your tenacity will provide no cure for your arrogance. I am not some mere 'obstacle' in your path to power. _I am its end!_ "

The screams of Ben Solo echoed through the domed chamber for several seconds as lightning arced into him from several sections of crystal at once. When at last the pain won out over his resilience, he fell to the ground. Sidious leaned over him, full of contempt.

"It is time for the ascension of this Galaxy. I have no more use for you. Let this place be your tomb. A monument to the Skywalkers and their precious "legacy" at the bottom of the sea."

Sidious vanished, and the light left the crystals in the room. As the light faded, the Resistance finally reached the lower chamber.

"Ben!" Rey shouted, running to the fallen man's side.

"What is this place?" Finn asked aloud.

"Look at him," Poe said, running his shoe through the layer of char around Ben's body.

Rey knelt at Ben's side and closed her eyes. She allowed her pulse to slow to meet his - he was barely breathing. She felt the Force flow into her, through her arm and into Ben. This was a deeper affliction than the Vexis. It required more of her to heal. She felt the current increase in speed, threatening to sweep her away. But she fought her way back, and the flow faded. When she opened her eyes, the dark-haired figure's complexion looked much healthier.

"He's stable. Chewie, can you carry him?"

The Wookiee nodded, and slung the unconscious Ben over his shoulder.

A tremor rolled through the chamber, as the ceiling began to raise. Poe could distinctly hear the roar of rushing water.

"Guys?"

"Run!" Rey shouted. She rose gingerly to her feet. "Get to the _Falcon_. We'll catch up."

Chewie and Rey ran for an exit as the water began to rush in. Rey threw out her arm and slammed the door shut through the Force, providing a brief respite. Seawater continued to spray through the seams in the barrier. The girl slouched against the door, grasping her head.

Chewbacca growled, concerned with her condition.

"I'm fine. We have to keep moving."

The station continued to rumble as they climbed. About halfway to freedom, Ben opened his eyes and recoiled against Chewbacca's grip. The Wookiee roared at him.

"Calm down, Ben," Rey said weakly. "I don't have the energy to argue. You can be angry when we're on the surface."

"Where is Palpatine?"

"Didn't see him."

"You should have left me down there. I couldn't even scratch him."

Rey rolled her eyes.

"If you're strong enough to swim, you're free to jump."

Ben looked down at the swirling waters.

"Don't drop me, Wookiee."

* * *

Rose, Babu, and their new droid friend opened another door to find the hangar in chaos. Stormtroopers ran back and forth while TIE Fighters screamed overhead. Outside flashes of green could be seen reflecting off the conning tower of another nearby ship. At times the whole ship would rattle.

"Okay," Rose sighed. "Lots of Troopers, but all pretty distracted. Clearly the Destroyer is in a fight. Maybe we can use this as a chance to steal a ship."

"That would be delightful," C-3PO said brightly. "However, if I might make a suggestion..."

He pointed to the _Night Buzzard,_ whose ramp was down and out in the open.

"The Knights' ship. That will work. Uh, guard the rear while we make a break for it. Lethal force is authorized if anyone you don't like gets too close."

C-3PO looked at her for a moment.

"In the interests of fairness I will give you a chance to rephrase that."

"If you see a Stormtrooper, and it looks like it's going to blow your head off, exercise your self-preservation routines," snapped Rose, annoyed. "I want that body intact so that I can put the real Threepio back in when we're done here."

"Excellent. I'll just be off then. Oh, me. This unit has a distractingly unpleasant lack of knives."

The gold protocol droid wandered out in full view of the control booth. A small squad of Troopers jogged over to investigate. At the same time, Rose, with Babu in tow, sprinted towards the _Buzzard_. Another blast, more powerful than the last, nearly knocked everyone off their feet.

"Leave the droid," one Stormtrooper shouted. "We have bigger problems!"

The console was dark as Rose entered the bridge. She punched some buttons to open the communications grid.

"Falcon, this is Rose, I repeat, this is Rose Tico on a commandeered First Order frequency. Connix, Chewie, are you there?"

Connix ran over to the console. Rose! Thank goodness you're alright! Where are you?"

 _"I'm on Ushar Ren's ship,"_ Rose's voice floated out of the speakers, _"I'm going to steal this shuttle, it's Hyperspace capable."_

"You're right over our heads, Rose. We're on Exegol."

_"Exegol?"_

"But things are crazy up there. The First Order just started firing at one another. If you go out there in a command craft you'll get shredded."

Rose blinked, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness.

"Let's see, this thing has to have a defense system. Shields, guns, any- eep!"

Rose gasped and accidentally cut the feed. She wasn't alone in there.

_"Rose? Rose what's happening?"_

"Damnit!" shouted Connix as she punched the console.

"Can you reacquire the signal?" Jannah asked.

Connix typed frantically. "She used a First Order signal, I can backtrace that into their network, contact any ship I want."

" _Any_ ship?"

Connix looked at the scavenger, who bit her lower lip.

"I have a really stupid idea."

Connix laughed.

"Welcome to the Resistance."

With a loud scream, BB-8 came speeding over a nearby hill. The terrain behind him was rising and falling in layers, a fallow violet light emitting from the cracks between.

"Start the ship?" Jannah asked, eyes wide.

"Start the ship!" Connix said quickly.

* * *

"There they are!"

By the time Rey, Chewie, and Ben emerged from the wreck, the sky was completely black. Occasionally a flash of lightning would drown the world in a sinister blue.

Rey ran her hand along the melted remains of the doorway. This was the same place that Ben had first entered that hellish place.

"A lightsaber did this?"

"The metal conducts the heat from the blade," Ben managed. "You can put me down now."

Chewbacca allowed Ben to regain his footing. Poe and Finn jogged over.

"Connix, we have everyone. Bring her around. And uh, we're taking Kylo Ren with us."

 _"Really? Well, that actually makes this next part much easier. Rose is up on one of the Knights' ships, which are currently on the brink of getting blown to bits. And_ I _just so happen to have hacked the communications array for all of them."_

Poe looked at Kylo Ren. In for a penny, he thought.

"Alright. It's worth a shot."

* * *

"Give Captain Canady my regards. He may just be a better dreadnought captain than his brother after all."

Ap'Lek watched the first of Hux's ships crumble into the Nebula as the _Obedience_ drifted across its prow.

Cardo Ren seemed less impressed.

_"Thanks, Ap'Lek, but the numbers still don't look good. And the shields won't hold out much longer."_

"I know that tone. We're not leaving without Master Ren. If that means we go out fighting, then find something to burn on your way down."

 _"Yes, sir,"_ the Armorer Knight grumbled as the feed cut.

A woman on the bridge held her headphones tighter to her ears to hear more clearly.

"Knight Ap'Lek? We have a priority call from the Resistance. They're on Exegol right now."

"How'd they get this channel?" Ap'Lek shouted. The last thing he needed was another problem. "Hell, how'd they get on _this planet?"_

"Looks like the signal worked its way in through the _Intimidator_ 's hangar. Patching it through now."

 _"Destroyer_ Unending, _this is General Poe Dameron of the Resistance. I repeat, this is Poe Dameron with urgent information for Ap'Lek Ren on the Star Destroyer_ Unending. _"_

Poe held his breath as the image of Ap'Lek Ren appeared in the projector.

_"General Dameron! Always a pleasure."_

"Yeah. Listen, we have Kylo Ren in our… custody."

Ap'Lek visibly deflated.

_"If you're interested in bargaining, I'm afraid you're about twenty minutes too late. We are somewhat lacking in negotiating power at the moment."_

"I noticed," Poe said. "Which is why I have a proposition instead. You could use a place where the First Order won't find you, and I could certainly use the extra firepower of five Star Destroyers and a Dreadnought."

_"You're asking for a truce?"_

"For the record, I don't think you Knights are my friends. I think you're a gang of psychos, and I don't trust you. I don't imagine you trust me, either. But you are the enemy of my enemy, and that's about as good as I can get. So for the sake of your crew, and your men, I urge you to listen."

"Ap'Lek," Ben came to the helm.

_"Master Ren? It's good to see you in one piece. What's the situation?"_

"As bad as you think. You heard Hux's transmission. It's over. Do what they say."

Ap'Lek paced across the bridge a few times.

"General, you make a compelling argument. Where exactly are you taking us?"

_"Do you know the planet Ajan Kloss?"_

* * *

After the coordinates with his navigation staff, Ap'Lek contacted the other Knights.

"Gentlemen. It's official. We are defecting."

_"Hell yeah, boys, off the grid! Been waiting for this the whole time!"_

_"Shut up, Vicrul,"_ Ushar growled.

 _"Are you sure this is a good call, Ap'Lek?"_ Trudgen Ren asked. _"We don't historically play well with others."_

 _"It beats staying here and dying,"_ Cardo argued. _"Plus, we have more than enough firepower to waste them if they try anything funny."_

"None of that, Cardo Ren," Ap'Lek snapped, "The First Order has decided we are an enemy. Rendezvousing with the Resistance is the tactically sound move. Leader Ren agrees."

One by one the Destroyers began fleeing the battlefield into Hyperspace. Scores of destroyed TIE hung in their wake.

* * *

Back on the _Millennium Falcon_ , the Resistance began their own escape.

"So you're the famous Kylo Ren, eh?" Jannah sized Ben up with a surprising degree of confidence. She had never met him with his mask on, so seeing him without it wasn't very affecting.

"You have a lot to answer for."

"It's a little crowded, up here on the bridge," he muttered, and limped down to the crew quarters.

"Look out there! Finn pointed.

All around them, rising at an unnaturally even speed from the depths, were the old Star Destroyers crewed by the Sith Eternal. There were hundreds of them - perhaps even a thousand. Lightning let loose from the clouds, and Rey was suddenly transported back to her vision so many nights ago. It was all coming to pass.

Then a voice came over the radio.

"Lieutenant Connix? This is Black Two. We're here for the exfil. And apparently not a moment too soon."

"It's good to hear your voice, Snap," Connix wiped her brow. Temmin "Snap" Wexley was technically a veteran of the original Rebellion, taking part in the Battle of Jakku as a teen.

"Prep for the jump. And don't freak out, but we're gonna have company. A lot of it."

The _Falcon_ rose higher, and the station to meet it. It was folding in on itself, creating an almost spherical geometric shape. The whole assembly, huge and glowing purple, heaved itself out of the ocean. The Cult Destroyers orbited around it like moons.

"Oh, man," Finn looked down at the behemoth structure.

"It's a holocron," Rey breathed. "A giant one."

"What's a holocron?" Jannah asked.

"It's a receptacle for information," Ben said, dragging himself to the window. "For thoughts. Or in this case, for a whole mind."

"So that whole thing is the Emperor? How do we fight that?"

"We regroup, and we launch a counterattack," Poe replied. He bowed his head, weary. "But other than that I'm open to suggestions."

The Millennium Falcon exited the atmosphere and immediately jumped to Hyperspace.

* * *

"Enter, young one."

"A part of me didn't believe it was true," Hux said as he looked up at the Emperor. "How could the most public figure in the Galaxy keep a secret like this? But here, all is laid bare. I know the truth, and I know my purpose."

"Tell me," the timbre of Darth Sidious' voice grew to rattle the entire chamber.

"I am Armitage Hux. Son of Brendol Hux, of the First Galactic Empire."

Hux felt something approaching a high from the sheer level of fear and anticipation washing across his body. It was a feeling he'd never truly be able to articulate.

"As my father served you in the old war," Hux knelt before the specter before him, "So too shall I, in the new."

The spectral figure grinned, showing a mouth full of crooked, decayed teeth.

_"Good."_


	14. The Alliance

It was quite a sight. Five huge First Order vessels hung in the lower bands of the atmosphere above Ajan Kloss, dark hazy wedges overlapping in the clouds. Even after Poe had debriefed her the sight still filled Maz with some amount of horror. The airstrip looked like it had been taken over by the First Order; more than a dozen shuttles stood with wings upright in a disorganized line.

The _Night Buzzard_ glided over the ancient bartender's head and landed not far from Rey and her friends. When its doors opened, Rose and C-3PO looked out upon the chaotic scene.

"Rose!"

Rey found strength enough to sprint forward and embrace her missing friend.

"Are you okay?"

"I am, I had plenty of help," said Rose as Babu Frik scurried down the ramp behind C-3PO.

"I'm so sorry, I-"

A dark shadow moved in the doorway, sending Rey on edge for a moment. But then she saw Kuruk Ren step gingerly out of the ship. A few tubes of bacta still lead into his robes, and the soft rhythm of an artificial breather could be heard inside his helmet. He looked at Rey for a moment, then nodded.

"What's going on, Rey? The First Order is tearing itself apart, which before I would have said was a good thing. But it doesn't feel like it in the moment."

"What's going on is that our interests currently align with theirs. Currently. I can explain more later, but for now we're helping them and they're helping us."

She looked at Kuruk.

"Right?"

He nodded again and went to join his comrades.

Rey slumped a little, and Rose moved to catch her.

"Hey, can we get some help?"

"I'm fine, Rose. I drained a lot of my energy on Exegol. I just need a moment to rest."

Chewie put down his communicator and hurried over to Rey. He growled something in his language to her.

"No, if you don't mind, I'd like to go to my spot in the woods."

As the Jedi retreated to regain her strength, the Knights were holding a terse conference.

"First thing's first," Trudgen began. "Hux told the whole First Order that you killed Snoke."

"He did," Ben said.

"Well, come clean, man! Did you do it or not?"

"I did what I had to do," Ben said, looking down.

"That's a yes," Ushar muttered.

"He gave me no other option. I could kill the girl and live in his shadow forever, or I could kill him and… figure it out from there."

"It was only a matter of time before he pushed you too far in the corner, you ask me," Cardo scoffed. "Wrinkly little bastard had a mean streak a parsec wide."

"Still, that will complicate our morale situation," Vicrul pondered. "Hux has a legitimate reason to oust us, and we don't know who among the ranks would agree with him.

"Leave the troops to me," Ap'Lek frowned beneath his mask. "I think the solution might be easier than you expect."

"Okay, so I just got out of a _very_ awkward meeting with my boss," Poe said, emerging from his tent.

He looked at Ap'Lek and the Knights, and the 20 or so Stormtroopers he could see mingling around the camp. And at Kylo Ren, standing alone in the middle.

"You guys are clear to stay here until we stage the counterattack. Comes direct from general Organa."

"Is she… here?" Ben asked. "I can't feel her presence."

"For security purposes, General Organa moves between several undisclosed bases separate from forward operations."

Poe side eyed the man.

"The First Order has ferreted us out of enough bases that we've learned to be more discreet."

"I see," said Ben, his face shifting imperceptibly.

"Sirs," a Stormtrooper jogged up to the party.

"I hope this is something important," Ushar rumbled.

"It is sir. The First Order is broadcasting.'

"To us?" Ap'Lek asked. "That shouldn't be possible."

"To everywhere," the Trooper replied. "They're tapped into almost every general frequency in the major systems."

"He's right," Connix hurried over. "Have a listen to this."

_"To the rebel scum of the Galaxy, this is Supreme Leader Hux of the First Order."_

Everyone stopped what they were doing as Hux's voice boomed from Connix's radio box.

"Supreme Leader. Pah," Ben muttered.

_"The Final Order has been given. Your Resistance ends today. Even now, an army of unimaginable strength and number gathers at the edge of known space. They will March under the banner of a reborn Galactic Emperor, and burn away the disorder of this Galaxy with the radiance of a thousand stars!"_

The red haired general's voice thundered over First Order frequencies across hundreds of planets. Where the technology was available his hologram towered over city plazas and streets.

_"This is your only warning. Submit to the will of the One, True Emperor, or face annihilation at the hands of the greatest military power ever assembled!"_

* * *

Phasma - _General_ Phasma now, she supposed - strode down a catwalk overlooking the assembly lines. Sith Troopers emerged from the vats, pink and shimmering with nutritional fluid. Row after row, they lined up to be outfitted in their gleaming red armor and marched out to the holding bay. Each one eerily silent, they stood straight and still, docile and ready to be commanded.

They were perfect.

Hux's ouster of Kylo Ren and subsequent alliance with the Sith Eternal had happened very suddenly, and without any input from Phasma. As usual. But if there was one thing she knew, it was how to adapt. And how to command.

Over her head, mechanical arms assembled TIE Fighters, a familiar model to the variety the First Order used. The Sith Eternal had little shortage of manpower, but this seemed to be the first run of any sort of combat equipment. Perhaps Palpatine had foreseen the First Order combining forces with his own.

Not for the first time, Phasma wondered just how far in advance the ghostly emperor had been planning this action - and what part they were playing in all of that.

Ahead, a Star Destroyer docked with the massive polyhedral station to load the troops and munitions. For the most part, the Sith Troopers would man their own craft while the First Order continued to maintain their own. Something about their training being focused on operation of the older Destroyers. But Hux would keep a personal guard of the red soldiers aboard the _Steadfast_.

The rush of hot air and aromatic vapors behind her signaled the beginning of a new cycle as the Destroyer pulled away to rejoin the fleet. With this ceaseless pace, they would have millions of fodder to throw at the Resistance. And the Galaxy would soon be theirs.

* * *

_"Submit to the will of the One, True Emperor, or face annihilation at the hands of the greatest military power ever assembled!"_

Ap'Lek switched off the transmission.

"Well, General Dameron, it looks like you're calling the shots. What's the play?"

"Well for starters, the First Order has already turned on you. Am I correct in thinking that a group of upstanding gentlemen like yourselves has no issue fighting your old allies?"

Trudgen chuckled. "Correct!"

"Indeed," Ap'Lek nodded. "The First Order has already fired on us with intent to kill. Turnabout is fair play. I'm sure Kylo Ren would agree. If he were here…"

"Good. Because a handful of Star Destroyers with full naval complement certainly wouldn't be a bad thing to have in my corner."

"And to keep that complement as full as it can be, I'd like to 'borrow' your renegade Stormtrooper friend. 'Finn,' I believe he's going by, these days?"

"Oh, good, good!" Trudgen clapped. "You were always were a smart Wookiee, Ap'Lek."

"What do you want with Finn?" Pie asked, suddenly defensive.

"We're not stupid," Trudgen continued. "We know all sorts of water cooler chat goes around the ranks about FN-2187, the brave soldier who stood up to a superior officer and loved to tell the tale. It's screwed with internal affairs for years."

"I'm sure there are those who… dissent to our whisking them away to join the enemy," explained Ap'Lek. "If your 'Finn' could speak to the troops, it would go a long way to keeping them on board, or at least talking them down from a mutiny."

"Okay. I can talk to him," said Poe, more confidently now.

"Now, for the preparation. Hux hasn't been able to find this base yet. As long as you went off the grid I'm betting he doesn't have much better luck. That gives us plenty of time to bolster our own army to strike back at the Final Order."

Ap'Lek shook his head.

"Hiding from Hux won't cut it with a Sithlord in their camp. Leader Ren and the Scavenger are both Force adept."

"What does that mean?"

"It means they'll stick out like Hutts in a chorus line," Cardo replied. "The Emperor will be able to peg them from a parsec away."

Vicrul put his hand to his helmet.

"On top of that, their ultimatum was pretty clear. If you don't take the fight to them soon, they're going to start burning down the Galaxy planet by planet. And we know they have the firepower to do it."

Poe looked across the fire pit to Kuruk, who had been silently observing the proceedings.

"Unless you can call together an army in, oh, three days, it looks we're all you've got," Ushar shrugged.

"Yeah. Looks like," the pilot muttered. Then he smiled. "Unless I can call an army together in three days."

* * *

Ben approached the temple as though he were walking on broken glass. He might have known it would all lead back here.

"Rey."

The girl emerged from the temple door. She looked like she had been crying.

"You look terrible," the boy said bluntly.

"Thanks," Rey scowled. "I feel terrible too. Healing you took a lot out of me. You're welcome, by the way."

"Then why do it?"

Rey cocked her head.

"You practically had a hole burned through your chest. You would have died."

"That's not what I mean. Why save my life? Why not leave me there to die?"

The wind in the clearing blew between them.

"You've put your trust in me and I've thrown it in your face," he said.

"That's true."

"I've kidnapped you, fought you, hunted you. You may not fear me like the others, but you certainly don't like me."

"That's _definitely_ true," she laughed icily.

"So, why? You had everything to gain from letting me die."

"I rescued you for the same reason I went to you on Snoke's ship back then. Because without Luke Skywalker you're the only other one like me. You may have chosen the wrong path in all of this - and I may have exhausted all of my empathy for you - but you and I are united by the Force. Don't you ever get tired of walking that path alone?"

He didn't say anything.

"I haven't felt as though I've been a good steward to your family legacy these past few years," Rey admitted. "But I know somehow, that everything I've done has been to get me here. And you, as well."

"You'll fail, you know," Kylo Ren looked at the splintered holocron from Kijimi, still on the table from days ago.

"Against Sidious?"

"Against yourself. You can't 'redeem' me. I don't think anyone can. I don't think _I_ could.

"I don't need to redeem you," Rey shook her head. "I only need you to stand alongside me against a greater foe, as you did once before."

She held out her hand. A blue crystal fragment lay in her palm.

"Two halves. It was always yours as much as mine."

* * *

Ben Solo took a deep breath, then another. He needed to focus. He sat in the remains of an old classroom, overgrown and missing its roof. Many years ago, before time decayed the temple, he had sat in this same room building his first lightsaber. Now he was once again perched over a bench, that saber open before him. The act of compelling his crystal to the Dark Side had left it fractured and unstable. He thought sometimes, about how it reflected himself. He was never the ideal pupil in the ways of the Dark; Snoke had told him so enough times.

"I wanted to make my own destiny. And what did it get me? Broken. _Weak_."

He thought back to how this all began. To Lor San Tekka in his hut on Jakku, hiding the map to Luke Skywalker.

_You cannot deny the truth, that is your family._

"Damn you, old man," he whispered. The saber components levitated off of the bench, and he let the blue crystal in his hand go.

* * *

And in the main building, Rey looked at her own red crystal. She thought about the history of hate that created it.

"I've spent all this time thinking about what they made you, as though it's what you are. I'm sorry about that."

She began the work of cutting and unscrewing various components from her staff. Rey kept the sturdiest materials she could find on Jakku, gradually lengthening the weapon as she grew up. She remembered every piece, even the smallest component.

"When I used you on Exegol, I broke through a wall I couldn't see before. I felt more than the rage. I felt the sadness, the fear. The raw emotions that the Sith thought made the Dark Side so powerful. And those emotions do have great power. But they also bring… pain."

A tear fell down her cheek again.

"We've both lived such difficult lives. I don't think I could ever understand. But I was given a new home. You deserve a new home, too."

When it was done, about half of the staff's length remained. She lined up the crystal in between two of the rings of the staff and sealed it up. Then she placed her hand on the new lightsaber.

* * *

In the forests of Ajan Kloss, the creatures who were attuned to it felt a powerful wave of energy echo through the trees. It radiated from the collapsed temple complex deep inside the jungle, across the planet and beyond. From the stables of Canto Bight to the penthouses of Coruscant, anyone who had ever felt that strange sensation was now experiencing it tenfold. The Galaxy was awash in a sense of dread. But here was this fleeting, unmistakable pang of… harmony.

Underneath an opened hyperdrive compressor on the airstrip, Maz Kanata felt it.

Deep inside the heart of the giant prism guiding the Final Order, the bound spirit of Sheev Palpatine felt it.

On a distant moon, an aging woman in a white shroud leaned on her staff, a green convor perched on her shoulder. They looked up at the sky, and felt it.

Taking what he hoped would be one final look at the remains of his temple - his triumph and his failure - Luke Skywalker felt it.

And on Pacara, silhouetted body framed by the evening light, Leia Organa felt it.

Ben Solo was always forcing himself forward. Part of him knew if he ever looked back it would destroy him. But right now the only thing in front of him was Darth Sidious. His hideous laugh still rang in his ears, making his face burn with humiliation.

The blue crystal he was fusing into his damaged one knew of the Sithlord's power. It coursed through Anakin Skywalker on the day he became Darth Vader. Ben coveted that legendary weapon for so long. But now that he was reaching out to it, he felt its reservation. Its previous owners had challenged the darkness of the Emperor and failed. They were corrupted, or defeated.

"In the forest, four years ago, you feared me. You feared my power, and so you chose her. But let me show you. I will not repeat the failures of the Skywalkers. Show me the way, and I will bring your story to an end. I will finish what they started."

As if to answer the young man, the alternating flashes of red and blue turned into a constant glow.

* * *

Ben waited outside the temple. A warm amber light shown through the gaps and windows. When it stopped, Rey appeared in the doorway. Her exhaustion was gone. When she saw Ben, she nodded. She held out her staff and ignited a yellow blade.

Ben unclipped his own saber; the blade sprang to life in a flash of violet. Gone was the ragged edge of his old blade, and only a thin trail of vapors came from the exhaust ports.

"I'll do it. _We'll_ do it. We can take down Darth Sidious."

"Not just the two of us, Ben," Rey smiled. My friends have been making calls all afternoon. We have everything we need."


	15. The Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick update before we get into it: my goal is to post the final chapter of this story on December 19th, on the eve of Episode IX's first anniversary. I'm looking at maybe three more chapters between then and now. Thanks for reading!

Armitage Hux stood at the edge of a long platform overlooking Space Dock #3 at the Kuat-Entralla Drive Yards. A silver cape with white interior framed his narrow form, now garbed in a similarly pale set of officer's regalia the general had specially ordered for the occasion of his rise to Supreme Leader.

Somewhere over his head, beyond the roof of the ponderously large facility, was the many-sided fortress of the Emperor, and the vast flotilla of ships around it.

 _"The preparations are nearly complete,"_ Palpatine's voice came from above.

"Yes. The influx of soldiers you provided has greatly raised our efficiency. The fleet will be ready."

_"Good."_

"We suspect that the Knights of Ren have fled to the Resistance. With the defectors' numbers added to their own, they will come for us soon."

Hux winced as Palpatine's grisly laugh assaulted his ears.

_"Let them come, that we may end this story all the sooner."_

"And what of Kylo Ren, and the Scavenger?"

_"Pay them no heed. I will deal with them personally."_

* * *

As Rey and Ben returned to camp, they noticed Connix surveying the airstrip. She was looking through a pair of thermal scopes, and didn't notice the other two.

"They're coming in now," Connix said into her radio.

Maz, Rose, and Poe, along with most of the medical and maintenance team, ran out to join her. Soon Rey saw why. A grey and blue shuttle was struggling to stay aloft as it worked its way to the runway, finally thumping and skidding to a halt not far from the assembled team. It looked like it had been run through a stump grinder, with smoking engines and huge pieces of cladding missing.

Lando was the first one out, followed by a half dozen crew members all looking desperate for solid ground.

Maz was the first to speak.

"Lando, what in the name of the Force happened after we lost contact?"

"These red Stormtroopers attacked us in droves. There had to have been a thousand. Not everyone made it back. And their Star Destroyers took a huge bite out of Bek's shuttle."

"Is Bek alright?" Connix asked.

"Of course I am, Lieutenant," the Mon Calamari's voice came from the top of the ramp.

"I don't know what everyone is fussing about. I've had worse landings than this."

"Lieutenant!" Connix ran up to embrace him.

"I apologize for having to re-enter the old fashioned way," he said softly. "But you can see why our options were limited. We stumbled upon something we shouldn't have," Bek said once he had extricated the girl.

"The Sith Eternal," Rose said as she and Klaud, one of the other technicians, began looking over the ship.

"The come again now?" Lando whipped around towards her.

"A cult of fanatics who helped Palpatine come back to life," Poe summarized. "They have an army of vat-grown soldiers."

"I see your mission was quite informative," Bek said, impressed.

"You don't know the half of it."

Rose turned to the others despondently.

"Look what they did to this," Rose whispered. "How do we fight this?"

Poe clapped his hand on her back.

"Together."

* * *

Over the course of the day, the favors the Resistance called in began to arrive. Jannah greeted her fellow scavengers as they unpacked all the weapons they could manage to scrounge up on Kef Bir. Bek summoned reinforcements from Mon Cala, while Poe and Rose were constantly in and out of the holophone room.

Chewbacca dragged Ben down to the airfield at one point in the afternoon to show him a sleek brown cruiser breaking through the atmosphere.

"A friend of yours?" Ben asked.

A blur of brown fur rushed out of the ship and tackled Ben to the ground. It was a young Wookiee, standing over the former Supreme Leader. What made it stranger was that Ben recognized him.

"Lumpy? Lumpy, what are you doing here?"

Chewbacca's son pawed at the Darksider enthusiastically, baying and growling in his species' unique tongue. He was much taller than the last time Ben had seen him - much more resembling an adult Wookie like his father - but leaner and a somewhat grayer shade of brown.

"It has been a long time," Ben tried to paw the young Wookiee off of him. "Things are different, now."

"How much did you tell him?" he asked Chewie, half angry and half confused.

The older wookiee grunted out a laugh and shrugged. Lumpawaroo often asked about Ben, even after he fell. Chewbacca also had an interest in making Ben feel as awkward as possible about this current truce. As far as he was concerned, it was a win-win.

* * *

"Thanks for coming, Zorii. I really owe you one."

"By my count you owe me at least two, but in this case I'm willing to let it slide," the pirate captain said, flipping the positional beacon back to Poe.

Zorii and her crew had flown to Ajan Kloss with their bomber fleet to fill out the Resistance's ranks. Now she and Poe were walking through the Destroyer _Tartarus_ watching the Resistance's fleet load into the hangar. Kuruk Ren was also observing the proceedings when they arrived.

"Um, hi," Zorii said. The knight nodded back silently.

"Kuruk here will be your point man. But he doesn't talk… much, so you and him will be conducting one of our strike teams - the Whisper Squadron."

The communicator on his belt began chirping.

"Sorry, this 'running a whole army' thing has me _running_ all over the damn planet. I'll let you two get acquainted."

"Poe-"

But he was already off. Zorii looked back at Kuruk.

"I don't know how much Dameron told you, but me and the crew, we're Y-Wing pilots. Y's weren't exactly top of the line even in the Alliance days. So… does he expect us to be dogfighting TIES in those old hosses?"

Kuruk shook his head. He pointed up at the gantries, and the rows of TIEs hanging from them.

"Oh? I've always wondered what it felt like to fly one of those bad boys."

Kuruk shook his head again, then grabbed Zorii's helmet and angled it towards a line of longer-winged fighters. TIE Whispers - prototype Interceptor models submitted for active-fire testing by the Knights' units.

"Oh, now you're talking."

Kuruk nodded enthusiastically.

* * *

"We have six corps of Troopers at the ready," Captain Pryde explained as he walked Finn and Rose out to the field. "One for each of the ships, and a sixth to coordinate efforts between the Knights of Ren."

"There's so many of them," Rose breathed as they came upon the assembled masses of Storm Troopers.

"These are the _first three_ ," Pryde sniffed, "The other half will be ushered in afterwards. Given our present accommodations this was all we had room for."

Jannah and her unit were at the front of the stage with some other officers. She looked at Finn in a way as to ask if he was as overwhelmed as she was.

"If that will be all-"

"No, actually," Finn decided. "Why don't you stay, Pryde? You'll need to hear this too."

The veteran's nose twitched.

"Very well."

Finn looked to Rose, who nodded in encouragement. Then he began.

"I know a lot of you resent me. I'm a traitor, I'm _the_ traitor. And a lot of you must resent being here. After all, a return to the glory of the Empire was the goal a lot of you were working towards. But the Emperor is back, and the glory has passed you by.

"Why? Didn't you fight, didn't you hurt, all of the greater good? You weren't the ones who turned against the Order, so why did they turn against you? That's just the way they repay your service. The First Order didn't care about your loyalty. You were just pawns in their games. You didn't choose when and where you fought and died. We never had any choice at all. Except for the one we can make today. Take off your helmets."

The regiments went into an uproar.

"Hey!" Rose shouted, her voice cutting through the crowd from her small frame.

Finn held up a helmet. "This is the face they gave us. No face, no emotion, just a good, obedient drone, one of millions. No need to worry about the person underneath. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I'm here to tell you that Palpatine and Hux have replaced you with exactly that. Faceless, emotionless drones, grown and engineered to be only soldiers. This helmet has always been their attempt at dehumanizing the lives they care so little about.

"Once again, I'm asking you to fight in a battle that you didn't choose. But if we fight, and we win? Then we create a future where there are no more white helmets. So until that battle begins I ask you to remove the helmet, and get to know the people inside of them."

There was a pause. Then Finn saw a freckle-faced girl with blonde hair in the crowd. Then a green-eyed man. Then dozens of faces began to appear in the crowd, as the wall of white domes began to collapse.

All of the faces looked tired, and miserable. But they were also determined.

"It was a great speech, Finn," said Rose. "Do you think they got the message?"

"They already had the message," Jannah said, joining them.

"They just needed someone to say it out loud."

* * *

When she wasn't training, Rey was making sure the Resistance's droids were in top working order. BB-8 seemed more interested in the modifications the young Jedi had made to her staff.

"Here, let me show you," Rey said softly, flashing the droid a quick smile.

R2 saw C-3PO ambling about the depot and whistled excitedly, leaving the others behind.

"Hm?" The Protocol Droid turned to see the astromech approaching.

"Hello there. What do you want?"

R2 beeped a few times, confused by his friend's change of demeanor.

"Is that so? I think you have me confused for someone else."

The astromech made an angry tone.

"Oh, you really don't want to get nasty with me, I'm a lot better at it than you are."

R2 said something in binary that was better left untranslated.

"Really, whatever shall I do?" Scoffed Threepio. "Go up a small staircase? Move along please. I have quite a bit of scheming to do."

R2 left the scene making the droid equivalent of grumbling noises.

"Oh my," Rey muttered. "I forgot about poor Threepio."

* * *

"Ap'Lek Ren," Kylo Ren said quietly. "A word."

The two knights ducked into an unoccupied tent in the Resistance camp.

"I have an additional task for you, during the upcoming battle."

"So you're back to leading us, then?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well pardon me, master, but your priorities as of late seem to have skewed from giving a damn what the six of us do."

Ben didn't meet his shrouded gaze.

"Well, priorities can shift in war."

"Don't let them shift too far. No one has ever left the Knights of Ren alive, Solo," Ap'Lek spoke his real name, a rare divergence from the Code of Ren.

"One of us would be duty bound to kill you and take your place as Master."

"Yeah," Ben nodded and looked away.

"You'd have to catch me first."

"You think this is funny."

"A little bit. Yesterday I had everything. An army. Unmatched power in the Dark Side. The Skywalkers were all but dead. The future was mine to shape. But I let Sidious play me for a fool. Just like Vader. I guess I got my wish after all."

Ap'Lek grumbled, and then hefted his helmet - a longer and heavier apparatus than Ben's own - over his shoulders. The material of his hood fell away and the dark eyes and green skin of a Nikto stared back at Ben.

"You run off on your own, you compartmentalize, you _killed Snoke,_ and you didn't tell us Knights until it had already blown up in all our faces."

He shrugged at his master.

"Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"I didn't know who to trust."

"You think we cared? We're the Knights of Ren. We _kill people_. For fun and profit. You killed the old master right in front of us and even that couldn't get it through your thick head. If the old man had it coming, then he had it coming."

"Then why would you confront me like this?"

"Because I want to remember what you said."

"Did you like what you heard?"

"Heh."

Ap'Lek had placed his helmet back on.

"I'm ready to hear about that task of yours."

* * *

"Relax, Poe," Finn whispered. "You got this."

"I do got this," Poe said, shaking the nerves out of his head.

"Alright everyone, let's break this down."

He was standing on a table in the middle of the base so that everyone could see him. It was a bizarre audience, where Stormtroopers in half uniform mingled with the motley-dressed technicians of the Resistance.

"My new friend and I," he gestured at Ap'Lek, "have come up with a fool-proof plan to defeat the First Order in three phases. Phase One is to get Rey and Kylo inside the giant holocron so they can eliminate the Emperor."

A holoprojector fired up, showing an archival shot of Chancellor Palpatine addressing the Senate on the dissolution of the Old Republic.

"Chewbacca and Lumpy will transport the assault team to the Emperor's fortress aboard the _Falcon._ Black and Blue Squadrons and the Whispers will provide support up close while the _Unending_ , _Obedience_ , and the other Destroyers provide it from afar. We want to divert the Final Order's fire away from the _Falcon_ at all costs."

"I believe that's my cue," Ap'Lek said, his modulated voice rumbling through the crowd.

"After the Supreme Leader and the Jedi are deployed, everyone gets into position for Phase Two - We're going to hack back into First Order comms and deliver a message to the troopers. To do that, we're putting a team _on_ an enemy Destroyer. Since Finn and Jannah have some experience in that department, they'll be taking point. Once the bridge is taken, the Communications Team and their crazy droid friend will find the proper frequency using our Destroyers as a template. Once the message is deployed, all Hell is going to break loose in the Order. That's going to give us the advantage we need."

"Which brings us to Phase Three," Poe said. "Blow them the Hell up. My old pal Zorii brought a small fleet of Y-Wings with her, so let's all give a warm welcome back to Cobalt Squadron."

Rose nodded at the base of the table.

"We have bombers, we have the First Order's only remaining Dreadnought, and we have a whole lot of allies. The numbers may not be in our favor, but when have they ever? We move out in two days. Let's get this done, Rebels."

* * *

Rose held up a black harness.

"Coms Team and I have done the math. That thing is big enough to have gravity, which means if we can get you close enough, you can make a low-altitude jump onto the surface. These gravity harnesses will get you down safely. Pull the cord, and it deploys an energy shield to dampen your landing."

Ben eyed the harness incredulously.

"How do I know you didn't do something to mine, that it will still work when I pull it?"

Rose grinned in a way that didn't make Ben feel any better.

"Sorry. The mental image of you leaping off the _Falcon_ and breaking your legs gets me all warm and fuzzy. But the mission is more important."

Ben stared at her.

"If it makes you feel better," she rolled her eyes and tossed him a white harness, "you can use the one I made for Rey."

* * *

That night at dinner, Rey addressed the Resistance.

"I usually leave the speeches and grand plans to my friends," she began. "But I thought you should hear from me before we start this.

"The fate of the Jedi has long been entwined with those who fight for the freedom of the Galaxy. Many of you have heard this, but few of you understand why. I only barely understand. Much of the story was written before I was born.

"The Jedi and their enemies have greatly reduced in number since days long past, but they always show up at momentous occasions in history to defend the balance of the Force, the energy that allows me to do the things I do. Usually, their opponents were the Sith, or some other adherents of the Dark Side of the Force. But what it was really about was aberration. Sith like Darth Sidious, the Emperor, use the Dark Side to subvert the will of the Force to their own. They alter its flow, and the Galaxy itself pivots on the axis. The Jedi were once dedicated to correcting these imbalances, and stopping those responsible. So was it that they often found themselves allied with movements like this.

"If you fight for the Resistance, it's because you believe that this Galaxy is worth fighting for. And to our newfound allies in the First Order, I imagine you understand, or at least can guess at, the peril that now faces the Galaxy. You all know that the Emperor, on a fundamental level, is _wrong._ Not just morally. For all of us come from different moral backgrounds. We are smugglers, soldiers, pirates, scavengers. Mechanics and politicians, craftspeople and spies. We've killed - each other - and if fate were different we'd likely still be doing it. But this is beyond the natural way of the world. And it threatens all of us.

"I invite you to drum up the courage that brought you here one final time, and hold onto the feeling. Because what we head into will be unlike anything we've ever faced. But the Force _will_ be with us. Let us be united within it, if only for one day."

She looked out over the sea of solemn faces. A small undercurrent of assenting grunts went through the crowd.

"Anyway, that's what I wanted to say."

She stopped to get down from her podium when she heard Finn's voice.

"Let's hear it for the Jedi!"

And the crowd slowly but surely raised their voices in salute to Rey, the girl who would soon save them - or die trying.

* * *

Rey and Ben met a final time on the evening before the mission to train and coordinate.

"You encountered him on Exegol," Rey said. "Do you have any idea what we're in for?"

"Darth Sidious commands power over lightning. The same power you harnessed on Pasaana," Ben said. "Can you do it again?"

"I don't know how I managed it the first time," she admitted. "But even if I did, why would I want to try it again? I can't let the Dark Side in."

"You already do," he said, growing exasperated. "The Light, the Dark. Luke would say that the Force was like looking through a door. Some people can barely peek through the cracks, other people can open it wide. You have no door. You're exposed, like a nerve. Constantly at the mercy of the Force in its totality. The Light, the Dark. All of it."

"It doesn't sound very good when you put it like that," Rey said, feeling now very vulnerable.

"It should have destroyed you by now. You're stronger than anyone else Skywalker trained here, but you have almost no control over your strength. You get pulled and twisted around by the Force. And yet you never break. I don't understand it. I don't understand _you._ Nothing I understand about the Force seems to apply to you."

"What would you have me do?"

"You said it yourself last night. Let the Force work for you. Take control of it, in the way that our enemy does. Bend it to your will instead of bending to its own."

"The Force isn't a tool, Ben."

"Okay, fine. It's not a tool, it's 'your ally,' right? But you're not letting it be your ally, you're letting it be your master. You've only gotten this far on your own strength of will, and I can sense that faltering. You either need to learn to push back against the Force, or tear down the mental blocks you're forming."

Rey blanched, her mind suddenly full of all the visions and voices she had heard in her journey so far. Her enemy might have a point.

"I can try," she said.

Ben gave her a serious look.

"Good. Because if you aren't _absolutely certain_ of who you are when you're down there, the Emperor will make you into something else."

* * *

The next day, the Resistance had a tense meal, and boarded their ships. Everyone seemed aware of the fact that this might be the last time they touched solid ground.

"I don't see General Calrissian," Connix said as she entered the bridge of the _Obedience._

"He's on a special assignment. Playing this one close to the belt, sorry." His eyes darted around the bridge of the Dreadnaught, still wholly uncomfortable with the setting.

"A page out of Holdo's playbook," she smirked. "How unlike you."

"I'd like to think I've grown a bit in the last five years."

"Leia would be proud of you," Connix said, patting his hand.

_"Poe, this is Finn. We're all set down on the hangar level"_

Poe tapped the command console.

"Roger that, Finn. Captain Canady, get ready to jump."

As the stars began to blur together and the fleet jumped into Hyperspace, Poe closed his eyes.

"It's been an honor serving together, Kaydel."

"May the Force be with us," she said gravely.


	16. Total War

"Ensign," Canady said, not taking his eyes off the windows at the front of the bridge, "Begin priming the autocannons."

"While we're still in Hyperspace, sir?"

"No, you're right, let's wait until _after_ Armitage has cut us in bloody half. Now! That's an order!"

The bridge crew flew into action charging the _Obedience's_ main weapon as the cantankerous captain continued to bark.

"I will not be the second Canady in a row to lose a dreadnought on his watch!"

* * *

"Remember last week, you asked me if we'd ever be done? It really seems like this is it."

Finn was talking to Rose and Rey on his shuttle's holophone. The mechanic was waiting with the rest of Cobalt on the _Tartarus_ , while Rey was onboard the _Prejudice_ with the _Falcon_.

"It really does," Rose said. "One way or another, this war ends soon. If I wasn't so scared, I'd be giddy."

"No time left to be scared," Finn said. "This is our chance to make this whole thing worthwhile."

 _"It's going to work,"_ said Rey. _"This is the best odds we've ever had going into a fight with the First Order, Sith Lord or no."_

"Just be careful, Rey," said Rose quietly. "He may not be trying to kill us right now, but I still don't trust _him_."

_"If all goes according to plan, he should be the least of my worries. Be safe."_

The Jedi's image flickered out.

"And good luck out there, Finn. I won't be far."

"You too. Keep them off our backs, and give them Hell. For Paige."

"For Paige."

 _"Two minutes to target, people,"_ Connix announced.

* * *

"Black Leader to all points," Poe strapped into his X-Wing. "All teams check in."

"Strike Team U, standing by," Jannah's voice came over the radio.

"Strike Team O, standing by," Finn reported.

"Cobalt Leader, standing by," said Rose.

"This is Blue Leader," Snap replied. "It's good to be back in the old colors. The rest of the squad is standing by."

_"One minute to target."_

"Falcon Team, standing by," Rey said.

* * *

Connix listened as squadron after squadron, team after team, the Resistance checked in.

"Cannons charged," the ensign reported.

"Wait for my signal," Canady muttered.

Connix clutched her headphones closer to her ear.

"Ten seconds."

"Targeting team? Prepare to earn your credits."

"Dropping to sublight in three… two…"

_"Fire!"_

* * *

It was quiet enough on the bridge of the _Steadfast_ for Hux to hear a Mouse Droid putting away down in the computer trench.

 _"Kehehehe,"_ Palpatine's voice rasped with mirth. _"They are coming."_

"When?"

_"Now!"_

The _Obedience_ was the first one out of Hyperspace, dropping just above the Destroyer _Vehemence_. As the rest of the Resistance Fleet jumped into view, twin red bolts of plasma launched from the dreadnought's underbelly, striking the unshielded Destroyer just in front of the command tower and about midway down the length of the pointed hull. Hux watched the lights immediately wink across the ship as it began to drift apart

"Whoa," Connix said, looking through the windscreen at the carnage. Two roiling seas of molten metal burned on the dorsal surface of the craft.

"How, exactly, does one become a dreadnought captain?"

* * *

The _Prejudice_ kept its speed to coast as close to Palpatine's fortress as it could manage, its shield scraping up against the edge of another Destroyer as it did.

"Oops," Trudgen winced as the _Unending_ arrived. "I could have sworn I left the interdictor on."

"Begin Phase One," Ap'Lek said, "Black Leader, the floor is yours."

As Blue and Black Squadrons deployed from their Destroyers, the TIE Whispers glided out of the _Unending_ 's hangar.

"Whoa, this thing really moves," Zorii lurched in her seat.

 _"I know, right?"_ Poe called over the comms.

Around them, the battle had begun in earnest, with TIEs screaming out of Destroyers on all sides and huge blue and green bolts of plasma lancing into opposing ships. Poe's wingman C'ai Threnalli flew up alongside him.

"Just like we did over Chandrila, buddy," Poe nodded.

Black Squadron weaved in and out of the fire towards the _Prejudice._ Inside the _Falcon,_ Ben opened his eyes.

"They're coming in, punch it Wookiee!"

Chewbacca pushed up on a throttle and the _Falcon,_ along with about a dozen TIE Fighters for cover.

 _"Welcome to the war,_ Falcon. _We'll escort you to Palpatine."_

Rey looked around the domed cockpit of the _Millennium Falcon,_ at the field of laserfire and explosions that stretched in every visible direction.

"So much destruction. So much death," she said with horror.

"And all for one man," Ben nodded. "Or what's left of one, anyway."

"Falcon, _this is Blue Six. We have a Destroyer firing up its ventrals. Need to break off to draw their fire."_

_"This is Blue Four, we have cultist TIE Fighters inb-arrgh!"_

_"We've lost Blue Four,_ Falcon. _Prepare for evasive maneuvers."_

Chewbacca growled and swung the ship upright. They could see the Star Destroyer emitting blue homing missiles at them.

"We're not going to be able to take a hit like that," Ben said, running towards the back of the ship.

"Ben what are you doing?" Rey asked, hurrying after him.

"Follow my lead," said Ben, "visualize the torpedoes."

"Okay," she said, unsure.

"You need to be able to grab it, and push. Can you do that?"

"I… Yes, I think so."

"Good. Now!"

They both pushed together with the Force. The _Falcon_ lurched, but stayed together.

Outside, Poe watched the missile detonate about a ship's length away from the _Falcon_.

"Wow," Rey breathed.

_"Good work you two. Keep that up."_

"Let's not make a habit of it, Dameron," Ben panted.

* * *

Over Rey and Ben's heads, the Whispers cleared the skies.

"Oh, I like this! Beats the sinking sands any day!"

She deftly weaved between

"These things practically fly themselves. No wonder the bucketheads can do so much damage in them."

_"Captain Bliss, most of us are also Stormtroopers."_

"Oh, it's all in fun, Mister… what's your name, mate?"

_"Captain, on your six!"_

A TIE had taken up position in her blind spot and was locking on for a thermal charge.

"Need some backup, private."

There was only static. Zorii saw a flaming Whisper whiz by to her left.

"Uh oh. Anyone out there?"

Zorii suddenly froze, feeling an unseen pressure to angle her ship _down_. She saw Kuruk Ren's Whisper flying towards her position. And with her now out of the way, Kuruk blasted the incoming fighter to dust. Evidently the Knight had given her a nudge out of the way.

"Thanks for that, friend," Zorii said. "A little warning though, would have been nice…"

* * *

The other five Knights of Ren were gathered on the bridge of the _Unending_.

"Ap'Lek to Strike Teams U and O. I have a battlefield survey."

 _"Point us at a ship,"_ Jannah said.

"That's the one you want," Ap'Lek pointed at one of two gap-filled, less armored Destroyers in the back of the fleet.

"The _Stygian II_ ," Vicrul nodded. "They must have rushed it out of the Drive Yards in a hurry, emphasis on flying and shooting. There's no way they installed the full security compliment into the systems."

Down in the hangar, Jannah and company finished strapping in.

"Two of my favorite things," Threepio mused. "Artillery, and impotent security measures."

"Just remember which Troopers you're _supposed_ to shoot," Rose said dryly from the cockpit of her Y-Wing.

 _"And also remember, the goal is to commandeer and hold the Destroyer,"_ said Trudgen. _"So try to keep as many of the weapons systems intact as you can on your approach."_

"You realize if this plan works we're going to be on the least shielded ship in the fleet?"

_"Oh yes, by far. Good luck!"_

"Maybe we shouldn't have let these knights join the good guys after all," Jannah muttered.

On the bridge, the knights huddled in a circle, pooling their limited strength in the Force together. They were reaching out to the fleet, searching for a target.

"Got him?" Ushar asked.

"Got him," Ap'Lek replied. He moved to the window and focused on a Destroyer high above them.

"There you are… Hux."

* * *

On the _Steadfast_ , detachments were dashing left and right to their stations. On the center console was one of the Sith Eternal's lieutenants, a hunched over old Togruta in foppish black and purple robes. He was a wretched sight, even in his finery.

 _"The Final Order is deploying their ships, Leader Hux,"_ the creature hissed. " _Suffice to say we have full superiority in numbers."_

"Good," Hux sniffed. "Let's get this over with quickly. What of the fleet?"

"Our shields are holding, so are theirs," an officer reported. "These Destroyers weren't designed to fire on each other. It will likely get messy."

"No matter," Hux shook his head. "The Emperor is wise. He has prepared well for this day. We need only wait."

* * *

 _"Black Leader, this is Blue Leader,"_ Snap radioed in. _"The Falcon is at Target altitude."_

"Copy," Poe said. "Chewie, it's up to you."

The ramp opened, and Chewbacca roared down the tunnel to Rey and Ben. It was now or never.

The two Force Users put on their rebreathers and jumped; first Ben, then Rey. As she fell, Rey spotted three TIE Fighters coming in towards them.

"Poe, we're in trouble."

_"I see them."_

Ben angled himself toward the lead TIE, guiding the Fighter's fire away from him with the Force.

"Be advised, Ben is doing… something," Rey said.

_"C'ai and I have the other two."_

Ben continued floating toward the center Fighter at an alarming rate as the two others exploded.

As the thin slipstream of the station's meager atmosphere carried him over the ship, he ignited his blade. The blade cut through the roof, as well as something evidently much softer, as once the blade caught to stop his descent the Fighter began to spiral out of control.

Rey, now down on the ground, watched as he jumped the rest of the way from the now unmanned craft and activated his harness.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

Ben watched the Fighter crash and burn.

"Yeah."

"Good. Because if I brought you to the Emperor's front door only to have you killed by a TIE Fighter, I'd be very upset."

Ben extended his arm to help Rey up the ledge. They were on the threshold of a vent descending through a magnetic shield and down into the holocron.

"No turning back now."

* * *

_"Ren and the girl are aboard. On to Phase Two."_

Rose hung the pendant - a relic of her home planet - from the top of her Y-Wing's cockpit and squeezed it with her hand.

"Here goes nothing, Paige."

Cobalt Squadron roared to life, and the shuttles carrying the Resistance's infiltration team left their hangars.

Bowdaar roared over the comms.

"That's right, Cobalt Two. Keep your distance until the Final Order realizes those shuttles aren't friendly, then let 'em have it."

Inside the shuttle, the lights flickered from the force of nearby blasts. Finn looked around. It hadn't been so long since he had last been in a transport like this. But it all felt so unfamiliar now.

Jannah was rallying the troops in the other shuttle.

_"Okay people. Buckets on for one last ride. Stormtroopers don't get personal, so let's try to keep this tight and professional. Nobody wants this fight, and nobody knows that better than you. So set your rifles to stun and let's end us a war!"_

* * *

The massive computer grew warmer as they descended further into its heart, until at last they crossed a crystalline threshold into the chamber Ben had stood in a day prior. Its ceiling stretched even higher now that the lower half was revealed. The vein of crystal had branched out across the chamber like a neuron, pulsing and flashing intermittently.

"This is the core?" She asked.

"This is _him_ ," Ben whispered.

_"Kyber Crystal. A miraculous substance, yes?"_

Dark vapors swirled around them, gathering atop the central beam of crystal.

_"They each have their own sort of sentience, you may know. Each their own connection and affinity for the Force. So as my broken body fell screaming into the kyber filled core of this station so may years ago, I reached out, and I felt them. A million voices waiting to fall, like wheat before the blade."_

The cloud manifested into the shape of Darth Sidious, perched on his throne of kyber. The phantom grinned, his orange eyes burning inside his hood.

"Welcome, children. To the end of your Galaxy."

Rey stepped forward and lit her saber.

"Every word we waste means more of my people die. So let's get on with it."

"Rey," Ben murmured.

Sidious cackled.

"Ah, you must be her. The nameless Jedi I've heard so much about. The last of the long line of warriors to die my far-reaching hand. Come. Let us at last fulfill Skywalker's wish. Let your order die, so that the Force might find peace once again."

"I have a name. I am Rey, and since my master isn't here, I'm going to fulfill his wish of stopping your return. I won't let his family's work be undone."

"But it is just Rey, isn't it?" Palpatine simpered. "Cast out into the sands, with no family to call your own. And indeed your master is _not_ here. Luke Skywalker is dead, one of many fruits of your collaborations with poor young Solo. The last Jedi Master, felled by the impetuousness of the student who would not learn."

Rey scowled.

"Look at you. No body, no way of escaping this place. You may be powerful, but you have no power outside of this fortress - this prison. All you have are words."

"Insolent girl. You know not the power of words. The Force is mighty indeed, but all of my greatest deeds - the subversion of a Republic, the construction of this great and terrible vessel, the corruption of a _noble Jedi Knight_ \- came from speaking the words people wanted to hear."

He lifted his arms, and the station began to rumble.

"My body may be gone, but it was never more than a shell. I spent decades searching for a way to break free of its confines, to master the finality of death. See how this whole place heaves and shudders at my very thought. I have never been stronger! As long as there are those who would listen to my words, who would execute my will, I still have all the power I need."

"Not to mention," he flashed a wicked grin, "We are not _outside_ of this fortress."

Ben ignited his own saber and looked at Rey.

"You wanted a fight…"

Blue fire welled up behind Sidious. Out of the flames came more shapes, their blank faces shrouded by their hoods. Haunted, faceless forms of the deposed Emperor. Each of Palpatine's shades carried bladed weapons made from Kyber, glowing with energy.

"...Well here it comes!"


	17. Absolute Peace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've made a small correction to Chapter 15 after momentarily losing track of Bek in my notes. Enjoy the chapter!

The First Order knew something was amiss as soon as the shuttles landed. They weren't on the emergency manifests and they weren't answering hails. Two dozen Troopers marched out, ready to tackle whatever the Resistance had inside. They didn't know what they were in store for, however.

A barrage of smoke grenades rolled out of the opening doors, obscuring the shuttles from view. Four Stormtroopers immediately caught heavy shots to the chest, knocking them to the floor. Out of each shuttle charged a pair of Wookiee vanguards in blue painted armor, bowcasters at the ready. Then, as the firefight truly began, Finn and Jannah's troops deployed. They wore their Stormtrooper armor, but each gleaming white helmet was marked by a blue handprint.

Jannah, differentiated from the others with an officer's pauldron (Finn had declined), stood at the front blasting paralyzing blue rings from her rifle.

"Move fast, everyone! We don't want to get stuck in this hangar!"

The Resistance Communications Corps, lead by Connix and Bek, followed behind the marked Troopers with their own blasters. C-3PO and R2 took up the rear.

"Our goal is to reach the backup command center and shut them out from there," Fin said. "The tower will be too heavily guarded."

"How many floors up?" Bek asked?

"From here? Six. And they're probably shutting down the turbolifts as we speak."

"Then we'll have to get creative. Never thought I'd have to break _into_ one of these things."

* * *

As the Strike Team progressed, a battle for the ages raged inside the Holocron. The shades were like Sidious in form, but not all alike in build. Each one had a distinct if unpracticed style, as if calling upon a distant memory of once-great skill.

The lithe ghost with the double-sided blade moved with a ferocity and swiftness that was hard for Rey to match, using both sides of her staff to frantically party its attacks.

Ben was beset with the other two; a tall phantom who moved slowly and used both hands to make british strokes, and a rigid specter who circled around them with waltz-like elegance, flourishing a curved blade to land the occasional hit. They clashed again and again, all the while Darth Sidious' voice taunted them from above.

"Beautiful, are they not?"

Rey slashed into the phantom with her saber and connected with something solid. The shroud around it dissipated into smoke and a dead Sith Trooper fell to the ground in its wake.

"They have neither want nor will. The perfect lifeforms to populate my eternal Empire!"

The smoke flowed into another inert Trooper riding out of the floor, and the battle began anew.

"An entire galaxy of conduits, pliable to my every desire. I can be anywhere, and everywhere, and all will submit!"

Rey swung wide at the foe, cutting through a length of crystalline pillar nearby. The effect was unexpected. The shadowy doppelgangers faltered and reeled as the crystal shattered, momentarily losing their cohesion around the Troopers, causing their fleshy bodies to fall to the ground.

"Ben, the crystals!"

Ben used this pause in the action to look around. When he realized what had happened, he reached out and began to shatter an overhead beam of crystal with the Force.

Rey jumped upwards, controlling her ascent with her staff like a helicopter, to land on the central beam. She picked a wide column of crystal and began cutting through. She even pulled out her short blade, powered by the remaining half of Luke's blue crystal, to assist her.

Palpatine clutched at his head as the crystals fractured.

"No. No! _Enough!"_

Ben and Rey were each struck by long arcs of lightning, knocking them off their feet. Then they were grabbed, gasping and shuddering, by invisible hands and carried up to where the Dark Lord waited.

Rey saw Ben struggling to his feet, and thought quickly.

"The crystals," Rey stammered, reaching out a hand towards Palpatine.

"That's how you connect yourself to this place. Just like you said. The Kyber has a sentience, and you're using it to hold on."

The Sith beamed with victory as he stood over her.

"Each fractal another piece of my lingering will. A vessel everlasting."

"An eternal throne for an eternal Emperor."

His boney hands crackled with electricity as he prepared to finish her.

"And an Emperor unending for an Empire without end."

"An end sooner than you think, Sidious," Ben said, swinging his saber through the Emperor's head.

"You're finished."

The Emperor slumped to his knees. Rey looked at Ben agape.

"Did you just - just like that?"

Ben didn't say anything, only slicking back his hair, eyes wide from his adrenaline high. Then they heard the creaking laughter return.

He stood up as the top part of his head began regenerating out of the crystal beneath. He turned to Ben and as his other eye began to regenerate, grinned.

"Finished? Young Solo, I have not even _begun_."

* * *

"What are they doing? Why isn't the Final Order firing?"

Hux stormed across the bridge as a TIE crashed into the shield outside, bathing the command tower in an orange glow. None of the cultists' fleet was responding to hails. They formed a perimeter around the battlefield, only using their point defense cannons when a fighter strayed to close.

"Why aren't they firing?" Poe echoed the general from far away. Then he thought better of it.

"Not my problem. Press the advantage, Rebels!"

And in the dark interior of one of the Final Order's vessels, the hunched over figure who has assured Hux of his superiority bared his sharp yellow teeth into a horrific grin.

* * *

"Your paltry war is a thread in a grander tapestry. This Galaxy is plagued by disharmony. It wants, it wills. It _resists_. It is an _ugly_ thing, a thing which must be razed to begin anew."

"And what about Hux?" asked Ben. "What about the cultists who brought you all of this refuse to nest in? Are they all to be razed as well?"

"Necessary sacrifices," Sidious sneered. "The general desires a glorious battle to end the Resistance once and for all. And he will get it. But the squabbles of the living are beyond me now. He may dominate your friends with his superior forces, or they may rout him with their ingenuity and pluck. It matters not. When the last shot is fired, and your armies have sufficiently weakened each other, the Final Order will wipe clean the slate and pave way for the new peace. The _absolute_ peace."

"A Galaxy full of puppets," Rey clenched her fist. "Silent, cold, and dead."

"The living have outlasted their use as pawns. Men like your grandfather, young Solo, and like Hux."

The lights in his eyes burned.

"What good are you otherwise?"

Rey and Ben charged the Emperor from opposite sides. Palpatine struggled to hold them back with the Force, arms outstretched. Groaning from the exertion, his body split down the middle into two mirror images of himself - half corporeal and half ghostly. One Sidious pushed Ben off the crystal beam with an invisible wall of Force and jumped down after him. The second summoned forth more lightning and began assailing Rey with it.

* * *

The back-up bridge was as lightly manned as the Strike Team had hoped, and at any rate few in the ranks of the First Order were equipped to deal with a Wookiee charge. Once R2-D2 hacked them in the skirmish was brief.

"Alright let's make this quick, people!" Connix shouted. Comms Team rushed around the console hooking it up to various machines. Threepio stuck a finger in a dataport and got to work.

"Yes, this is quite a bit more intuitive than the Imperial model," he mused. "I believe we should have access to every speaker in the fleet."

"Perfect," Bek clapped his hands together. "Then prepare to transmit!"

 _"Finn? Are you ready?"_ It was Poe.

"Poe. I'm glad to hear you're still safe."

_"We escorted Rey over, now were ready to take the fight to the First Order. But we need you to kick things off. You can do it buddy!"_

Jannah angled the mic to herself.

" _Stygian II_ to all points, this is Trooper TZ-1719 . Standby for a message from Trooper FN-2187."

Finn gulped, then began.

"To everyone who can hear this, I'll keep it brief. My name is Finn. I used to belong to FN Corps, designate twenty one, eighty seven. They've probably told you that I'm a traitor. That I'm scum. That I… killed countless former comrades on Starkiller Base. And they're not wrong. I'm not proud of a lot of things I've done in this war. But I thought you should know what your lives are worth to the First Order. I thought you should know that it was Captain Phasma who disabled the shield generator on Starkiller four years ago. I thought you should _know_ the choice that she made with a gun to her head. The rules they can break vs the ones you can't. That's who you're fighting for. That's _what_ you're fighting for. If you think they should be held accountable, take off your helmet and let them know."

He closed the channel.

"Was... was that it?" Threepio said after a moment of pause. "We came all the way up here to tattle on your superior officer?"

 _"Well, you said you would keep it brief,"_ Poe said.

"Just give it a sec," Jannah replied.

The torches at the gate finally stopped, and the door fell in. The Resistance Troopers raised their weapons, but before their enemies could fire back, they all got stunned from behind. Three more Stormtroopers came forward, hands in the air.

"Don't shoot!"

"Easy, guys," Finn said, coming to the door.

"FN-2187? We've come to back you up," one Trooper said. She and her comrades took off their helmets.

"There are others on board too - a lot."

"That's what I was hoping for. Jannah, get them set up. And let's get the blast doors sealed!"

* * *

"Sir, you probably could have guessed, but we have urgent hails coming in from, well, everyone."

"Seal the doors!" Hux bellowed. He could already hear commotion beginning beyond the bridge.

"And where is Phasma?"

* * *

Phasma stepped over the smoking corpses of the four unfortunate Stormtroopers who happened to be in her detail when Finn's transmission went through.

_"Phasma, where are you?" We need you on the bridge, now!"_

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Supreme Leader," the chrome soldier said as she stepped into the turbolift.

_"There are riots breaking out all over the fleet! And a lot of the other generals have questions for you."_

"I will gladly submit to their inquiries when I return."

_"Return? Return from where?"_

She shot the control panel to the turbolift when she emerged. Two Stormtroopers were standing in the hall.

"Captain. Is it true?"

"Of course not," she said, sauntering forward. Then she shot both of them as she passed.

"I'm a general now."

Four more Troopers - all without helmets - rounded the corner to see their fallen comrades.

"Phasma! Halt!"

She extended her quicksilver baton.

"Stand down, Troopers. Don't make this worse for you than it already is."

"We could say the same," the first Trooper said.

"We don't take orders from you anymore," said another. "Take her down!"

Phasma hurled her weapon through the torso of one of the Stormtroopers, then charged forward. Stray blaster bolts struck off her chromium armor and ripped holes in her cape. She took down another Trooper with her pistol as she advanced.

When the general reached her baton she wrenched it out of the downed Trooper and struck another in the head.

"Shoddy marksmanship," she said as she grabbed the remaining Trooper with one arm and lifted him up. She wound back her baton.

"I thought I taught you to aim better than that."

A heavy shot dented the back of her helmet, causing her to drop the helpless soldier. She had miscounted. Five Troopers.

"Go!" The newcomer shouted, begging her squadmate to escape. How very selfless. But Phasma shook her head. She needed to focus on the task at hand. That transmission came from the _Stygian II._

As she finished off the would-be hero, Hux contacted her again.

_"Phasma! Stop this nonsense. Where are you going?"_

"Administrative action. It's nothing for you to worry about, Armitage. I have identified the problem, and rest assured; I intend to correct it."


	18. The Fire

_"It looks like our plan worked, Poe,"_ Connix reported. _"First Order ships are firing at a much lower rate. It must be chaos in there. Phase 3 commencing now."_

"That's great to hear, Connix," Poe said back. "How are things on your end?"

Connix watched Jannah fire through a hole in the now-compromised blast doors.

"Threepio is jacked into the weapons systems. We're going to put them to use."

"Good."

He dialed into his special radio frequency. BB-8 whirred inquisitively in his hatch.

"That's right little buddy, it's time for me to spring my surprise. Rogue Squadron!"

 _"Rogue Squadron?"_ Connix frowned. _"There is no-"_

A dozen ships dropped out of Hyperspace, first a small formation of X-Wings of various ages and models, then a pair of towering Mon Calamari capital ships, then finally a curious, sleek luxury cruiser.

Connix wouldn't have recognized Lando Calrissian's signature ship, the _Lady Luck_ , but Lieutenant Bek had heard countless stories about it. The general must have made some considerable aftermarket modifications to it for it to be battle-worthy.

 _"Let's show these young guns what the old timers can do!"_ Lando's voice crackled over his comlink.

 _"Call me old again, Lando Calrissian!"_ Maz hollered from Rogue Four. _"I dare you!"_

 _"Some decorum, ladies and gentlemen,"_ a calm, even voice came in. _"There's a war on. Rogue Leader, checking in,"_

"Wedge Antilles I could kiss you right now," Poe said as he rolled out of incoming fire.

Captain Antilles, the only remaining member of the _original_ Rogue Squadron that flew behind Luke Skywalker in the civil war, was enjoying a well-earned retirement after the Empire fell. Leia was hesitant to turn to him after Luke disappeared, but he wouldn't have missed this last battle for the world.

"Rogue Squadron, hook up with Kuruk Ren in Whisper Squadron and begin supporting the bomber squadrons."

 _"Kuruk checked out,"_ Zorii said. _"He and the other Knights are having a parlay. Guess you're stuck with me."_

"Okay then," Poe said. "Let's get this done!"

* * *

On the _Unending,_ Ap'Lek Ren observed Rogue Squadron enter the battle.

"Clever, Dameron," he chuckled. "Is the shuttle fueled, Trudgen?"

"Kuruk is ready when you are," Trudgen nodded.

"Well okay then," Ap'Lek turned to his captain. "I cede command of the bridge to you. It's been a pleasure."

"Sir?" The captain asked. "Where are you going?"

"To initiate Phase Four. Dameron isn't the only one with a trick up his sleeve."

* * *

Another Sith Trooper landed with a thud at Ben's feet. The young man was standing in a pile of the pruny bodies as more and more spectral Emperors advanced on him. Their kyber weapons were not truly lightsabers. They did not cleave with the unparalleled ease of Ben and Rey's weapons. But they still burned with unbearable heat where they touched Ben's body. Sidious taunted him all the way.

"I wondered how you had survived the fate I left you to on Exegol. But it was her, wasn't it? The girl, surpassing you once again."

Ben hacked through the Emperor, but he reappeared over another of his duplicates.

"The power to restore one's life. Lost to the ages, it was once believed. Your grandfather won me the entire Galaxy in exchange for that power. But he never got the chance to pursue it. Ironic, wouldn't you agree?"

"You lied. That power belonged to the ancient Jedi. A Sith couldn't have taught him even if you wanted to."

"Is it my fault that the Jedi would so selfishly lock away such a miraculous gift? Look what it has done for you - buying you a few precious more days before _oblivion!"_

* * *

The _Steadfast's_ second hangar was under control of the rioting Stormtroopers by the time the _Night Buzzard_ landed.

"Knight Ap'Lek, sir," the man who seemed to be in charge salutes as the Knights of Ren exited.

"What are we heading into, Lieutenant?"

"There are pockets of loyalists around the ship, but they're probably in worse shape than the rest of the fleet. A lot of personnel on board came from units stationed on Starkiller."

"Interesting," Ap'Lek said deviously. "Pull your men out of the general area of the command tower. It's where we need to get to work."

"And then what? We're at your disposal and ready to help.

"Load up as many ships as you can and get off the _Steadfast_. Then do what we would do."

The Knights drew their weapons and moved into the ship.

"Find something to burn."

* * *

Hux watched a Resistance flagship burst into flame as one of the Destroyers laced into it with its main cannons. A few clicks away the _Obedience_ was vaporizing a Final Order ship as TIEs streamed from it like a hornet's nest.

The First Order had been on the cusp winning this battle before Finn sent out his message and turned the rank and file against their superiors. It was just a matter of whittling down their shields. The Dreadnaught was certainly an issue; it would take a lot of concentrated firepower to down it, too much to spare with the other Resistance vessels swarming like gnats.

"I'm surrounded by traitors," he bemoaned to his silent guard of Sith Troopers. "What is the Emperor doing down there to allow this insubordination? Somehow, this is Kylo Ren's fault."

"Sir!"

The sound of an alarmed bridge officer compelled Hux to turn around. Plumes of smoke were billowing from the utility alcoves.

"A fire?"

"Someone go see what's happ- _urk!"_

The muffled sound of a sidearm discharging rang through the bridge.

"Check things out," Hux said to the Sith Troopers, pointing them into the cloud. What little color had been visible in his pale face had drained.

"Now!"

The Troopers moved quickly out of Hux's vision. As the fog grew ever closer, he could hear screams and sounds of struggling all around him. The Sith Troopers' powerful blasters rumbled the floor of the bridge as the red glow of their laser fires illuminated undefined shapes in the haze. Then, less than two minutes after this cacophony started, everything went silent.

"Is it done?" Hux called out. "Are they handled?"

A red shape rolled across the ground, stopping at Hux's feet. It was a Sith Trooper helmet, a spider web of cracks from a blunt impact radiating from the side.

The smoke cleared with an unfelt breeze, revealing the Knights of Ren. They stood amongst a scene of carnage. Computer banks cut clean in half, droids lying smoking on the floor - and bodies. The bodies of the bridge crew were strewn across both levels of the room. The only living beings in the room were Hux, and _them._

"Yes, I'd call that handled, wouldn't you Knight Ushar?" Ap'Lek said, lowering his arms from banishing his smokescreen.

"Almost," Ushar sneered.

"It looks like we missed one."

Hux drew his blaster and fired, but Trudgen moved his enormous vibrocleaver into its path, sending it bouncing harmlessly into the ceiling.

"Supreme Leader Ren was disappointed he couldn't be here to collect you personally," said Ap'Lek. Then he muttered to Cardo and Kuruk.

"Take him."

Hux, now yet another shade paler, worked up the courage to fire another shot. After two more blasts, a sudden pain surged through his hand, causing him to drop his weapon. Kuruk lowered his hand, and the two Knights restrained the helpless man.

"Does he mean to kill me?"

"I'm sure he doesn't want to talk podracing news with you," Trudgen suggested brightly. "He rather doesn't like you."

"It doesn't have to be this way," Hux said. He was already being led out of the bridge towards the nearest turbolift to the hangars.

"You weren't party to Kylo Ren's treason. You can come back. You can have all the luxuries afforded to you by the First Order once the Galaxy has submitted to Emperor Palpatine's rule."

Ushar spat out a bitter laugh.

"Trudgen, remind me again what Hux's orders were on Exegol?"

 _"Fire on the Knights, they are enemies of the order,"_ Trudgen said. The twisted glee had not left his voice. He was enjoying watching the redheaded general squirm in their grip.

"I knew you would take his side. That it would come to this eventually."

"So did we," Ap'Lek said. "I just never figured you would have the stones to take the first shot. Vicrul! Come on, we're leaving."

Vicrul had been pacing around between the terminals on the bridge while his cohorts worked.

"I'm coming!"

Hux protested all the way to the turbolift, now sure there was no way to talk his way out of his fate.

"This was _my_ army! Before Kylo Ren was ever a part of the First Order I served. This was supposed to be _my_ victory."

"Have some dignity, for crying out loud," Ushar groaned, turning to Kuruk. "Did you bring a muzzle?"

Kuruk shook his head.

After about a minute of the lift whisking them downwards in silence, Ap'Lek put his hand on Vicrul's shoulder.

"You put bombs in there, didn't you?"

Vicrul put his hand to his chest.

"You wound me, Ap'Lek," he said. "Such frivolities are Cardo's domain. I rigged the bridge with hyper-pressurized canisters of Plank Gas."

"You _what?"_

"You carried tubes of a dangerous corrosive chemical agent through a live fire fight," Cardo spat, "and you didn't think that was worth mentioning before?"

"I was very careful," Vicrul said defensively. "I even left the remote lease valve controls on the ship. So no accidents."

"Unless a pot shot from a Stormtrooper hit a canister inside your robes, releasing an explosive wave of gas that dissolved our armor into its component atoms and melted the flesh from our bones," Ushar argued.

"Melting flesh? We need to get off this ship before you psychopaths destroy us all!" Hux shouted.

"Oh, who asked you?" Vicrul sulked.

* * *

Ben was pinned between three phantom Sith Lords, his violet blad the only thing keeping their blades from digging into his flesh. He needed to act fast. But all he could hear was the hum of his blade, inches from his face, and the screams of the girl above him.

_Rey._

The duplicate Emperor on the beam was feraly growling as he shocked Rey again and again. She couldn't manage to lift her arm, to raise her saber against him. A palpable aura of despair surrounded her, every voice in her head telling her to give up.

"Rey!"

There was a new voice. A real one. She could vaguely hear Ben shouting at her. She tried to focus.

"Rey, you can't fight him that way. You need to let go!"

Palpatine cackled.

"He's right, girl. Just give in, and let the veil of death overtake you. I have seen it. I have embraced it."

"No, Rey. Remember who you are - remember what I told you!"

Rey's eyes snapped open. She planted a foot forward.

"Use it, Rey. Let the Force flow through you. _All of it!"_

Rey shouted, and spread her arms. The lightning scattered around her, sending crystals tumbling to the ground across the chamber. The phantoms piling themselves onto Ben dissolved into lifeless Sith Troopers.

Darth Sidious reacted with shock, then launched another salvo at the girl. But Rey was ready. She anchored herself to the crystalline floor with the blade end of her staff and held out her right hand. She strained against the lightning, preventing it from traveling up her arm and into her heart, reaching for Sidious as she had so long ago breached Kylo Ren's mind the day the Force awoke within her. The lightning arced back around her hand to the Emperor, who outstretched his other arm to pour on the pressure.

"You do not fear the Dark Side," Sidious bared his teeth. "The Dark will always exist, no matter how many times you strike it down."

"And so will… the light, to stand against it," she struggled.

Sidious grew tired of this battle. He had a galaxy to rush. So he called back his lightning - and found that he _couldn't._ A circuit had formed between the old man and the girl, an unbreakable loop of electricity in the air between them. Rey shuddered under the exertion. But she had to hold on.

Ben gathered his breath on the ground, watching the power struggle grow. He was suddenly yanked into the air and slammed into a crystal pillar.

"I'm not finished with you, boy!"

The remaining Palpatine stalked toward him with a kyber blade drawn.

* * *

Rose and Bowdaar watched the top of the Star Destroyer collapse in on itself as their bombs did their job. The grizzled Wookiee roared victoriously.

"I can't believe it either, Bud," Rose said. "We're really turning this around. "I still wish we weren't surrounded by spooky ghost ships who haven't burned any fuel yet."

The Night Buzzard made its journey home. Vicrul watched with satisfaction as the command tower of the _Steadfast_ crumpled and dissolved. By now a sizable debris field had formed around the Holocron. Poe navigated it in his X-Wing, using the terrain to confound the TIE Fighters that never seemed to end. Thus was it that Ben didn't notice the one particular Fighter that was gunning for him.

"Ah yes," Phasma muttered venomously. "The _pilot._ "

BB-8 chattered with alarm as the chromed figure closed in on them.

"Oh no," Poe grimaced.

"Guys? Our old friend Phasma is on my tail."

_"What?"_

Finn ran to the window of the _Stygian II,_ scanning for his friend amongst the starfield.

"You need to lose her, Poe. Fast."

_"I'm heading your way, gonna cut through this mess up ahead."_

"So she did survive after all," Jannah shook her head.

"We're going to have to do something about that. Bowdaar, you want to take charge for a minute while I take a look?"

Bowdaar grunted in assent and Rose jetted off. Zorii and Wedge pulled along either side of her.

"What are we working with, Cobalt Leader?" Wedge asked.

"An elite Stormtrooper commander. Strong armor. Not sure how she flies."

"On it."

A five-way dogfight began in the ruins of a Resistance flagship. Phasma was not the flier that Wedge or Poe, or even Rey and Ben were. But she was crafty. And she was determined to reach the object of her rage.

"You have nowhere to run, Phasma," Rose said. "Everyone knows who you are, now."

"Who's running? All rebels will be dealt with to the full extent of First Order law. Today, _I_ am that law."

She squeezed her triggers. One of her shots clipped Poe's S-Foil.

"Ah damnit," Poe muttered.

"Target locked," said Wedge. "Goodbye, Captain."

The shot tore through the saucer-like wing of Phasma's TIE, the membranes catching fire. Phasma swore under her breath and reached for her oxygen mask.

Smaller pieces of

"Mayday, mayday, I do not have control of the Fighter. I'm going down!"

As Poe pulled on the yoke, the X-Wing spiraled into the side of the _Stygian II_ , landing inside an unfinished section of the superstructure. Phasma, for her part, didn't manage much better. She angled herself into the same opening and braced for impact.

* * *

"Die, you dogs!" Threepio exclaimed as the deck canons continued to shred through Fighters outside. The protocol droid's voice never rose above its usual pleasant, erudite timbre.

"Someone keep that droid in line!" Bek barked.

"Where is Poe?" Finn kept asking.

Connix checked the ship schematics.

"Access corridor in the superstructure. Mag shields are installed but there's a mechanical failure in panel three. It will have to manually be reset every time it goes down."

Finned turned to Jannah.

"Would you be able to help me?"

"And leave them here by themselves?" Jannah asked.

"It's important. Phasma has taken so much from me. I can't let her take Poe too."

"Just go!" Connix said. "We can handle ourselves. You'll need masks, the atmosphere is going to be real touch and go. There should be a panel full of them near the doors. I'll unlock the hatch when you're there."

One of the Wookiee soldiers stepped forward and handed him a long blade. A _ryyk_ , the traditional blade of Kashyyk. It was heavy in Finn's hands, with an exotic hooked edge. Finn didn't speak Shyriiwook, but he realized the incredible honor it must be for an outsider to wield one.

"Thank you," Finn said, then he charged forward.

"Make a hole! We're coming out!"


	19. Legacy

_"Dameron. Hey, Dameron! You still with us?"_

Poe lurched awake. The first thing he noticed was the fire. That was good. It meant there was oxygen. It was also bad, because he was sitting on a tank of rocket fuel.

"Ap'Lek? I'm alive, yeah."

The tactician stood on the bridge of the _Intimidator_ with Hux and the other Knights.

"Interesting. Well, that's the good news."

_"And the bad?"_

"Heh. Everything is subjective. But I'm afraid here is where we part ways."

"You're leaving?" Poe wheezed. "The job isn't done."

_"Your job. Not ours."_

Poe coughed out a laugh.

"You know, for a minute back there, I was almost starting to like you."

Ap'lek laughed. "I'm glad we got that sorted then. Give Phasma my regards."

"Ap'Lek," said Trudgen, "Leader Ren didn't specify where were we take Hux after we grab him. We could just wait here."

"Call it taking the initiative, Trudgen. We'll take Hux, and if Kylo Ren wants him, he'll just have to come find us to get him."

A high, raspy laugh came from the back of the group. The other Knights turned to see Kuruk clapping at Ap'Lek's daring.

"Well I guess it's settled," Cardo said. "Take us to lightspeed."

* * *

As the _Intimidator_ vanished, Poe popped open the canopy of his X-Wing. He winced in pain.

"Guys? I think my leg is broken. I can't move."

"Finn and Jannah are coming to get you."

A glint caught Poe's eye. Out of the burning TIE wreck came Phasma, her spear drawn. An oxygen rebreather hung around her face, now free of its Chromium helmet.

"Tell them to bring more guys."

The magnetic field holding the vacuum of space at bay flickered, and Poe's ship lurched backwards. Phasma struck her spear into the ground, bracing herself. A moment later, the field returned.

"FN-2187 cares for you," Phasma called out to the wounded pilot. "I wonder how he will take your death? Will he give up the will to fight? Will he beg for a quick death, to spare him further pain?"

"Get away from him you psychopath!"

Finn and Jannah, each wearing masks of their own, stood in the doorway.

A savage grin played across Phasma's lips.

"Or perhaps he will come to me, in effort to save you."

"You think you've ruined me," Phasma said, a disquieting calm in her voice. "But it's your word against mine. When I place your head on the end of this spear and show it to the rest of your renegade scum, will they be so brave? Or will they fall back in line, as they always have?"

"You can't undo what's been done, Phasma," Finn shouted. "The Stormtroopers won't serve you anymore. Or Hux. Or anyone else in the Order."

"Then at least I can take some personal satisfaction from this."

They charged at one another, ready for one last fight to the death.

* * *

While Rey stayed locked in her Force battle with one Sidious, Ben Solo found himself in a duel with a surprisingly agile Sidious of his own.

"Your emotions betray you, the Sith Lord sneered. "You know what your failure will mean."

"That's why I can't fail. This Galaxy can never be yours to kill."

"It already is. The Resistance will fall, and so will you. You have but one mortal form, while _I_ am _legion._ All-powerful, all-knowing. You were dead the moment you stepped onto my station. And so it will end. A thousand generations of Jedi, all leading down to the two of you. How _disappointing."_

"You may think you're invincible in here. But for all your bluster you aren't used to being omniscient. You still need to focus on one or two of your bodies at a time. Not looking at the big picture."

Palpatine lept back.

"You don't mean…"

Above him, Rey took a deep breath and relaxed her arm. The lightning arced through her, down her staff, and into the beam, where the heat from the lightsaber blade had been melting into the core of the crystalline structure. The energy burst the crystal, sending her flying off as the beam fractured into a hail of clear crystals. The Sidious she had been fighting watched in horror as the blast vaporized him.

"Impossible," Palpatine cried as the crystals, no longer connected to each other, began to collapse from their mountings in the core.

"Yeah, it's annoying. But she's a fast learner."

Ben wiped a trail of blood from his mouth and grinned.

"She needs to take better care of that lightsaber though."

The phantom emperor looked behind him, seeing too late the forgotten blue saber flying straight for his throat and impaling him. He took a single, shuddering step backwards before Ben grabbed him by the shoulder and forced him backwards onto his own blade. Palpatine laboriously stretched his fingers, trying to conjure another body. But it was no use. His power was fading, and he was the last one.

After wrenching the lightsaber from Sidious's back using his foot for leverage, Ben circled around his enemy and pulled free the other with a flourish. The Sith could only gasp as he fell backwards into a heap. Ben's heart raced as he approached.

* * *

"Training you was a mistake," Phasma spat. She swung her spear and Finn blocked it. He had to throw a lot of weight behind each swing of the Wookiee blade.

"The only mistake, was teaching FN-Corps to use melee weapons. That Chromium might deflect blasters, but let's see how easily it dents!"

The magnetic field failed again, and they flew into the airstream, still swinging away. Jannah slammed the access panel to reset the field, and they fell a few paces away from Poe's Fighter.

* * *

The Emperor's body was fragmenting into crystalline shards where he lay on the ground. Beneath it, one final Sith Trooper body was turning to ash.

"Please," he rasped. "I cannot go back!"

"Yes. You've died before. Tell me, what did you see?"

"Nothing. No one!"

Ben stood over him, his own purple saber in one hand, and the half-powered saber of his grandfather in the other.

"Then you can be Emperor of that. Nothing, and no one."

Most of his body had deteriorated. His remaining eye blazed.

"That is not so. You are no Jedi, boy. I will see you there someday, as well."

The boy looked down. Then he slammed the old man with the Force, scattering him to the wind.

"Rey," he whispered. He ran into the pile of crystals, and found her laying in the middle. Large chunks of crystal lay atop her body.

* * *

The fight was brutal, weapons bashing and deflecting off of armor, punctuated by field collapses and then repeating, until Phasma lost her spear into the vacuum. Here Phasma's advantage grew, as she used her height and powerful build to turn their duel into a fistfight Finn had little chance of winning. She yanked the sword from his hand and tossed it under the X-Wing.

Jannah saw an opening as Phasma threw Finn to the ground and drew her bow. The arrow hit the captain in the shoulder, causing the huge woman to groan with pain.

She yanked the arrow from her shoulder and looked at Jannah, blood boiling.

A wire wrapped around her wrist. It was BB-8, the brave little droid having fired his grapple line from the Starfighter to give his friend a hand.

"Little pest!" Phasma growled. She yanked on the line, pulling the droid out of his housing harshly. The small droid was not strong enough to resist being reeled in like a fish. She began to crunch down on his spherical body with her bare hands.

BB-8 turned to Finn and beeped weakly, then flashed him a thumbs up with his pilot light. A bolt of inspiration - Finn knew what to do.

"Jannah!" Finn shouted. "The panel!"

This time Jannah _disabled_ the magnetic field, and as she did BB-8 stuck Phasma with his arc welder, sending a shock through her body. As she convulsed, she flew out of the ship, BB-8 and all. But she managed to grab onto a bulkhead on the unfinished frame.

"You won't be rid of me that easily, FN-218-"

She didn't get to finish. A well placed arrow to her eye, the same eye that Finn had revealed for the first time four years ago, sent her tumbling into space.

Jannah restored the field and breathed a sigh of relief.

Finn ran to his first friend in the galaxy and took off his rebreather.

"Poe! Poe, breathe."

Poe slowly came around.

"Finn?"

"It's me, buddy."

"Finn, you saved my life."

"No. You saved mine, four years ago."

"Finn, I..."

He placed his forehead to Poe's own.

"I know."

Poe suddenly sat up.

"My droid!"

" _I'll go get him,"_ Rose said, watching from her cockpit. _"That was a great job, everyone. Now get inside something with a stable atmosphere before I have a heart attack."_

* * *

Ben lifted a few of the larger beams from around Rey, then knelt at her side. She was alive, although her breathing was faint.

"Rey. We did it. Sidious is gone. for good, this time."

Her eyes fluttered open.

"You came to get me."

Ben pulled her to her feet.

"Now we're even. Simple as that."

She smiled, but it faded to concern.

"Ben, I... I can't feel my arm."

He looked down at the hand in his. there were dark burns up and down her skin.

"Try not to think about it for now. Let's find a way out of here."

* * *

Chewbacca and Lumpawaroo circled back around the Holocron.

 _"Keep searching,"_ Connix said. _"They must be in there somewhere. You saw that flash of light, they must have won."_

"Guys," Rose said. "The Final order is on the move. I don't think they got the memo that we won."

"They're going to protect the Holocron at all costs," Poe said. "We have to get out of here."

Chewbacca sent a jubilant roar across the communications channels. Rey and Ben, the Jedi using the battered young man as a support to keep upright, were standing at the threshold of the magnetic field. Lumpy maneuvered the Falcon into the duct to retrieve the saviors of the galaxy.

* * *

Gray sunlight filtered through the window in the old throne room. It had been two weeks since the Emperor's death, and even this place no longer seemed so gloomy. Ben stopped to catch his breath as he reached the top of the chamber.

"I'm here."

From behind the throne came a blue glow, and then out stepped Rey, her short saber drawn.

"My message got through, then," Rey faced Ben intently.

"Have I come for a fight?" Ben asked, tossing aside his cape to reveal the saber strapped to his hip.

"That would be brave of you."

"No. You won't fight me. Not today." She shut off her saber and put it on her belt.

He leaned on a piece of long-dented rubble.

"You're right. As usual. I'm not in the mood for any more bloodshed for a while."

Rey nodded. She came down the sloped floor a bit closer to him.

"How are your wounds?"

"They will heal. What about yours?"

Rey flexed her hand. An array of thin metal sutures ran up her arm. She might never regain feeling in her arm, but these cybernetics would allow her to continue using it.

"It was a sacrifice that had to be made."

"You're lucky. That was an intense amount of energy coursing through you. It could have done more serious damage."

"I know. Luck has been on my side these years."

They were both silent for a moment before she looked up again.

"Where will you go now?"

Ben looked surprised.

"You know?"

"I suspected. You couldn't hang around here. So where?"

"I don't know. Somewhere I can put the pieces back together, and see what the finished picture looks like. What do you suppose it will look like? Kylo Ren? Or Ben Solo?"

"I'm sure that it doesn't matter what I think," Rey smiled. "You always wanted your destiny to be in your own hands. Now it is."

And for the first time in a long time, Ben Solo smiled.

The two shook hands, and then, grabbing a pouch of what few possessions he had left, the man turned to leave.

"Ben…"

He turned once more.

"May the Force be with you."

* * *

"I'm not sure it was a good idea, letting him walk," Poe frowned when Rey had returned.

"He has a lot to answer for."

The Resistance had set up camp on Kef Bir after the battle. Too many people knew about the base on Ajan Kloss - in fact, now Captain Canady was using it as a POW camp for the other members of the First Order. Poe was watching Babu Frik attempting (unsuccessfully, by the sounds coming out of the tiny alien's mouth) to reverse what he had done to C-3PO.

Rey sat down beside Poe.

"We've all had a long couple of weeks. There's about a million ex-Stormtroopers to relocate, and just as many to negotiate surrender with. There's a giant dead computer full of priceless crystals being guarded by a swarm of mindless Sith drones. The Galaxy has no formal government to pull them out of the aftermath of the war.

"So you're saying that we should probably enjoy this little moon vacation while we can," Poe said. "Alright then."

Chewbacca and R2-D2 arrived. The astromech reacted with alarm at the state of his friend. He and Babu exchanged some harsh sounding words with one another.

"A memory backup?" Rose said. "You couldn't have mentioned that before?"

Babu Frik scratched his head, then opened up the drive for his personality component.

R2 plugged himself into C-3PO, can a jolt of energy shot into the gold droid. After a while, the light returned to his eyes.

"Oh, R2, I had the most splendid dream. You and I and Master Anakin were - wait a minute! Master Anakin! That's right!"

He thumped R2 on his dome.

"R2 you scoundrel! You never told me we fought in the Clone Wars!"

* * *

"You know, for all the talk about wanting the war to be over, I don't really know what to do with myself now that it's done."

"Speak for yourself," Finn said, pouring her another drink. "I was literally raised for fighting wars."

"Well, I don't know about ex-Troopers," said Zorii, "But I can always use a few grease monkeys for the crew. I think Bowdaar would agree, you have game, Miss Tico."

"Oh no, I'm not brave enough for piracy Swashbuckling on the high sands is _your_ calling."

"Well how about interplanetary freight? I'm thinking now that the Order is gone, maybe we all go legit."

"Now there's an idea," Jannah said. She pulled over a cart of parts to fix up Zorii's Whisper.

"Wars are good for breaking things. Now it's time to get fixing."

Zorii turned to Rose.

"There's one interested party."

"I'll keep you in mind."

* * *

Chewbacca gestured at BB-8, who pulled up a schematic for the _Falcon_ with some of his new ideas.

"Oh ho, That is _not_ going to happen," Rey scoffed as she looked at some of the more _expensive_ aftermarket additions.

Chewie roared defiantly.

"Sure it's _your_ ship, but if you're going to have some kind of Wookiee mid-life crisis, you're not going to do it with _our_ credits.

The Wookiee grumbled, and Lumpy growled something encouraging to his father.

"A swoop bike _would_ suit you," Lando and Lumpy both laughed.

She laughed, and turned to leave.

"We can talk about it."

* * *

Rey looked out over the cliff and down to the sweeping prairies of Kef Bir. It was a rare clear day on the grassland moon, and the sun was getting ready to set over the planet's true horizon, rather than the far way edge of the gas giant.

Maz Kanata sat beside Rey.

"And so ends the story of the Skywalker family," Maz sighed.

"Yes," the girl nodded, looking off to her side. "But their legacy is the Force, and that legacy will never fade."

Behind Maz, the shape of Luke winked at her, then faded from view.

Maz smiled. "No, I think not."

The others joined the two women on the cliffside. They all looked up at the setting sun. The small dot of the ship bearing Ben Solo into the next stage of his story passed across the shining disk before winking into Hyperspace.

* * *

STAR WARS

The Final Order

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all. This was by a wide margin my longest experiment yet. I hope you've enjoyed it. I do have some ideas for more Star Wars fics, perhaps set 6-10 years after this one, but I find branching too far out into original concepts in this universe to be a little perilous. As it is, I'm already way far behind on my Inferno project anyway.
> 
> If you have any questions about this story, I would be happy to answer them. I did an ungodly amount of research to make sure this felt as right as it could.


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